Lydia Sham Won Hong Kong's First Gold of the Aichi Nagoya Asian Games in Women's Changquan
Sham scored nine point seven one three, just three thousandths of a point ahead of Macau's Sou Cho Man, in her third Asian Games appearance.
Lydia Sham Hui-yu won Hong Kong's first gold medal of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on 21 September 2026, taking the women's changquan wushu title with a score of 9.713 at the Aichi Prefectural Martial Arts Hall.
The margins at the top were extremely narrow. Macau's Sou Cho Man took silver with 9.710 and Indonesia's Eugenia Diva Widodo won bronze with 9.706, leaving just seven thousandths of a point between the three medallists.
Sham, who was one of Hong Kong's flag bearers at the opening ceremony, was competing at her third Asian Games. She credited her decision to move away from all-round events and focus solely on changquan with giving her more time to refine her routine. The victory also earned her a HK$1 million award under the Jockey Club Athlete Incentive Awards Scheme for individual gold medallists.
Malaysia's two entrants did not challenge for the podium, with Lee Jia Rong finishing 10th and Loh Ying Ting 11th.
Changquan is a fast, acrobatic northern Chinese style featuring jumps, spins, deep stances and high kicks, and is judged on quality of movement, overall performance and degree of difficulty. Wushu continues at the Games with the women's nanquan and nandao and men's nanquan and nangun finals on 22 September, while the sanda combat events run through to 24 September.