China's Hong Kong Contract Bridge Team is also getting ready for the upcoming Games. Let's find out more from Anne Cheng.
At around 7 p.m. on a weekday in Hong Kong, 45-year-old Charmian Koo has just gotten off work, but her day isn't over. The system analyst, who works in a financial institution, is joining other Hong Kong Contract Bridge team members to train for the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou city.
The card game, Contract Bridge, typically involves one pair of players competing against the other pair. For the upcoming Games, Koo will be playing in the Women's team category, which sees two out of three pairs per team fight against each other.
Previously, she had won a silver medal in the Super Mixed team category.
Charmian Koo, Hong Kong Contract Bridge Team player "My past Asian game is a lifetime memory, is unforgettable memory, because I play really bad in the qualifying round. I just think, 'we can pack our luggage'. From what I learned from the past Asian Game is never give up. My captain asked me and my partner to play the last round, which is the most important one. My captain just told me, 'treat it as your last minute, last hour in your life.' Then suddenly I perform very well. Finally I come back. The feelings come back."
Because Bridge is played in silence, partners have to glean information from each other and their opponents as cards are played. Koo has been paired with her partner, Pearlie Chan, for about 15 years.
Charmian Koo, Hong Kong Contract Bridge Team player "For us, for a more advanced level is more based on judgment. Sometimes there's no right or wrong. So now our practice is more like I talk to my partner and then like go through the hands and then see if we have the same understanding."
Also at practice is 46-year-old Dicky Lai, who works at a securities company and trains for about three to four times a week. In the previous Asian Games, he won a bronze medal in the men's pair event and a silver medal in the men's team event. For the upcoming competition, he’ll be playing in the men's team event and he's gunning for gold.
Dicky Lai, Hong Kong Contract Bridge Team player "This year Asian Games is a little bit different as before. Because after COVID I have more than three years not going outside to play in competition. So specially for this year, I go outside many times to join some competition and try to pick up the feeling of playing in some real competition."
He also plans to study up on his opponents to understand more about their playing style.
Dicky Lai, Hong Kong Contract Bridge Team player "If we can enter the final, we need to play 10 days straightly. So it is quite a challenge for us because we seldom have this kind of chance to play so many days and under pressure. Recently I tried to sleep earlier to prepare for it."
In real game play, every table plays with the same set of cards, and practice sessions here usually mirror that.
Anne Cheng "That machine that's hooked up to a computer can designate how cards are shuffled, ensuring that all tables get the same type of cards to start with. So for example, these cards are for the player in the north position, and that means all other players sitting north will also get these same type cards."
Since the Bridge team's positive results from 2018's Asian games, the government has awarded elite athlete status to most players from the team and offered more subsidies for tournaments.
Derek Zen, Hong Kong Contract Bridge Team Captain, President, Hong Kong Contract Bridge Association "Most of the players here are from our youth team. And the reason why we've been successful, because we tried to introduce bridge into the secondary school as well as tertiary school or the universities."
He adds that Bridge is unique as a sport because it requires a lot of energy and with every table playing with the same set of cards, it's less about luck and much more about skill.
Anne Cheng, CGTN, Hong Kong.
