RETHINK BY HK STARS AS GAMES PUT ON ICE
‘Some of the older riders may not be able to stay on for that long,’ head of local cycling body says with Hangzhou event postponed until next year
Hong Kong athletes and sporting bodies have been left revising their plans for this year after the China-hosted Asian Games were postponed until next year.
Set for Hangzhou from September 10 to 25, the Games being put on ice amid a Covid-19 battle on the mainland is a major development for Hong Kong athletes, many of whom regarded it as the biggest event of the year.
Gold-medal contenders for Hong Kong were set to include cyclist Sarah Lee Wai-sze and the men’s rugby sevens team – in both cases aiming to repeat in Hangzhou their podium-topping performances of four years ago.
The Hong Kong Cycling Association had nominated 30 athletes to send to the Games, including Lee, who at 34 was preparing for what could be her last event of such magnitude.
“China is still trying to cope with the pandemic, so it is understandable that they would prefer to postpone the Games,” association chairman Leung Hung-tak said. “We don’t know how it will affect the athletes until we know how long the Games will be delayed. If it’s too long, like one year, some of the older riders may not be able to stay on.”
Hong Kong cyclists won three gold medals on the track at the 2018 Jakarta Games – two for Lee, in the sprint and keirin, and one for Leung Chun-wing and Cheung King-lok in the men’s madison.
Fencing coach Zheng Kangzhao said plans for the year had been turned upside down, but he hoped Olympic gold medallist Cheung Ka-long would still be a strong prospect to triumph next year.
“It has an impact because since the Tokyo Olympics last year, all of our training programmes had been in preparation for the Asian Games – the most important competition this year,” Zheng said.
Table tennis coach Chan Kong-wah said: “The pandemic has thrown preparations for the Games into disarray – many tournaments were cancelled over the past two years, especially in Asia, where almost no events were held. Many players have suffered a drop in world ranking and are currently travelling to Europe for tournaments, hoping to improve their rankings. The delay will give them more time to prepare for a normal Asian Games.”
Hong Kong Rugby Union chief executive Robbie McRobbie was able to empathise with Games organisers, with Covid-19 having forced the cancellation of the city’s sevens tournament in 2020 and last year.
“We sympathise with all of the organisers and athletes at this time, but are confident in the successful staging of the Asiad at a later time,” McRobbie said.
“While our elite sevens athletes will be disappointed in this news, especially our defending gold medallist men’s squad, the teams are busy preparing for a heavy international sevens calendar with competitions overseas in June and August, and the Rugby World Cup Sevens in September. There is still much to play for in 2022.”
The Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong said it “believes that the decision was correctly made”, and “respects and supports” the move by the Olympic Council of Asia yesterday.
Hong Kong Olympic Committee president Timothy Fok Tsun-ting said: “We believe China could still stage a successful Games in a ‘closed loop’, but the Asian Games is more than a sporting extravaganza, with many cultural exchanges among the Asian nations, and this could not happen under a closed-loop environment.
“It would be better when we can have a normal Games under no threat from the pandemic,” Fok added.