Tokyo 2020: Hong Kong Olympic hopefuls to be locked in at elite training centre as epidemic escalates

The Hong Kong Sports Institute will lock down for two weeks from Wednesday after three of their karate athletes returned from Europe with the coronavirus, and because of the escalation of the epidemic across the city.

The Fo Tan training complex, which has over 1,000 athletes at all levels from part-time to full-timers and junior to senior categories, will become a closed camp for the first time since its opening in 1982.

Athletes can still undergo training with their coaches but none will be allowed to leave the Institute. Coaches will be given special accommodation if they choose to stay, while most of the full-time athletes have accommodation at the Institute’s athletes’ hostel.

It is expected some non-Olympic sports will choose to stop training during this period as they don’t have the Olympic Games this summer.

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“This is being implemented to ensure a safe environment for athletes and staff,” said a spokesman. “We think most of the Olympic sports will continue to train at the Institute as they have to prepare for the Summer Games or its qualification, while the non-Olympic sports can move out temporarily to allow a better hygiene condition through less contact.”

Of the 20 tier-A disciplines at the Institute, squash, billiard sports, wushu and tenpin bowling are not medal programmes at the Olympic Games.

For athletes who are undergoing self-quarantine at home or at hotels after returning to Hong Kong on March 5, they will be required to get prior approval from their respective head coaches before they can return to the closed camp environment.

One head coach, who wished not to be named, said they understood why the decision was made, the but their preparations for the Olympics will be affected.

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“As professionals in the business, we have to prepare our best for the Games as they are to open on July 24 and therefore we cannot stop our training at the Institute,” he said. “But the players will definitely be affected by what’s happening around them, their families, their friends and people they know. It is not easy to keep focused. We just do our best and hopefully we can get over the virus as soon as possible.”

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The Institute will employ a professional company to conduct full-scale deep cleaning of the campus during this period. The three confirmed karate cases visited a number of areas after their return to the Institute – their living quarters, the canteen and the gymnasium.

Meanwhile, the virus test results of gymnasts Shek Wai-hung and Ng Kiu-chung are not known yet, but other athletes and staff who have been tested are all negative, including Angus Ng Ka-long (badminton), Sarah Lee Wai-sze (cycling) and Rex Tso (boxing) Sing-yu.