Two Opens may open Games door for Hup Wei
National high jumper Lee Hup Wei is targeting two Malaysian Open meets to help his bid to qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Olympic.
The Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) are looking to host the 2020 Malaysian Open in December and the 2021 edition in May to boost the national athletes’ chances of qualifying for the Olympics from July 21-Aug 8 next year.
The qualifying campaign for Games will resume on Dec 1 and Hup Wei, who finished eighth in the World Championships in Doha, Qatar last year with an effort of 2.27m, has the best chance to qualify as he is ranked 17th in the world.
With a personal best of 2.29m, the 33-yearold just needs to maintain his form in competitions and remain among the top 32 to qualify.
“I heard local competitions are being planned from November and the Malaysian Open will be held in December,” said Hup Wei.
“The Malaysian Open will be important as it offers a lot of points. In fact it’s more than the SEA Games points ... the points are around Asian level competition and it gives Malaysian athletes a good chance to collect points.
“My plan is to compete at the Asian and World Indoor competitions next year before the Malaysian Open again which most probably will be held in May. Having two Opens in a short period will be good because we can get more points for the Olympics.”
Hup Wei, who is aiming to make a third Olympics appearance in Tokyo, said his training has been going on well for the past two months.
“Since our return to training, I have been jumping at the 2m mark with a weight jacket and I’m happy with the progress,” added Hup Wei, who took part in the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics.