‘Cracks in armour’ for triathlon qualification
Hongkonger Jason Ng Tai-long’s primary rival for Olympic qualification is beginning to show “cracks in his armour” ahead of the Asia Triathlon Championships in Japan tomorrow.
That is the view of Hong Kong head coach Andrew Wright, who said Ng, in common with compatriot and Paris hopeful Bailee Brown, was delivering the best training performances of his young career.
Ng surpassed Kazakh Ayan Beisenbayev in a neck-and-neck chase for the lone “new flag” Games qualification spot, after finishing fourth to his rival’s 20th at the Asia Triathlon Sprint Championships in Dexing a fortnight ago.
The result leaves Beisenbayev, 44th in the Hong Kong-staged World Cup leg last month, scrambling to avoid a repeat of his Tokyo Olympics qualifying fate, when he was foiled by Ng’s teammate, Oscar Coggins.
“The Kazakh guy [Beisenbayev] has never qualified for an Olympics, this is his last chance, and we are beginning to see some cracks in his armour,” Wright said.
“He is beginning to panic a little bit, the team all looked very panicked in China [at the sprint championships] and they are making mistakes.”
Wright acknowledged, nonetheless, that his six-strong men’s team, also featuring Robin Elg, Nicholas Tsang Cheung-sing, Mark Yu Shing-him, Yip Tak-long, and Hung tik-long, would “have to be aware of the position of the Kazakh athletes, so we are not facilitating them to race well”.
Brown, joined in Japan by teammates Hilda Choi Yan-yin and Cade Wright, is trying to chase down another Kazakh, Ekaterina Shabalina, for the women’s new flag position, which is awarded to the top-ranked male and female whose country or region have not qualified for the Games.
The 24-year-old gained ground in Dexing, finishing seventh, seven places in front of Shabalina, but was left to rue a mistake on the first transition that Wright believed cost his athlete the race victory.
“Bailee is super fit, but it did not show at the sprint championships because of a couple of fatal errors,” Wright said.