'Realistic' HK aiming to avoid early exit
While most countries have medal aspirations, Hong Kong's Olympic showjumping team have set a more realistic goal - to avoid elimination in the opening round of the team competition.
'They [the team] are realistic,' Hong Kong Equestrian Federation secretary-general Soenke Lauterbach said. 'Our big achievement is we qualified. Everything that comes from now on is really the bonus.'
Lauterbach, who spoke with Kenneth Cheng Man-kit, Patrick Lam, Samantha Lam and Jennifer Lee last week at a team meeting in Aachen, Germany, said if the team progressed past the first round then they would have 'achieved really everything we can achieve'.
The four, who are training in Europe, will return to Hong Kong in early August. Their horses will arrive on August 4 for the first day of team competition on August 15 at Sha Tin.
Asked about the reality of achieving the goal, Lauterbach said: 'That depends on the day, but it's a chance.'
Lee is the one question mark on the team as she is still awaiting a Hong Kong passport.
'She will compete with [her horse Mr] Burns,' said Lauterbach when asked about Lee's status. Lee's name is not on the list of athletes provided by the Hong Kong Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, but the final list is not due until next Friday.
The team will stay together in the official hotel to get the Olympic experience and facilitate security checks and transportation to the venue.
The Aachen meeting was the first time the team had been together since their specially arranged Olympic qualifier in May, where each rider qualified at least one horse.
Only Cheng qualified in a regularly scheduled qualifier the following week at a Nations Cup competition in Austria.
Lauterbach said the riders were starting to realise they were Olympians. 'They didn't seem stressed, they were still happy but I think slowly they've started to realise what's happening now,' Lauterbach said.
