Ryan Choi is among the other Olympians who could join the delegation for the event in Chengdu. Photo: Jonathan Wong
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https://scmp.com/sport/other-sport/article/3170109/hong-kong-olympian-doo-hoi-kem-lead-citys-medal-charge-summer Other Sport
Hong Kong Olympian Doo Hoi-kem to lead city’s medal charge at Summer World University Games in Chengdu
- Doo won a bronze medal with the women’s table tennis team in Tokyo and is among favourites in June
- Other Olympians who could join her on mainland include Kaylin Hsieh and Ryan Choi Chun-yin, and swimmer Toto Wong
Doo Hoi-Kem will make her debut for Hong Kong at the Summer World University Games in June. Photo: AP
Hong Kong is expecting to send a team stacked with Olympians to the 2021 FISU Summer World University Games in Chengdu this June, with bronze medallist Doo Hoi-kem among them.
Doo, a member of the successful women’s table tennis team at the Tokyo Games, is a student at Education University and will make her first appearance at the event.
And Mabel Mak, chairman of The University Sports Federation of Hong Kong, expects more of Doo’s Olympic teammates to join the city’s delegation.
“We have received a long list of applications, including some Tokyo Olympians,” Mak said. “ We hope to win more medals than before.”
While Mak said the squad that travelled to mainland China “may not be the largest” the city had ever sent to a university Games, she still believed more than 100 athletes would take part. The final team list is expected to announced by the end of May.
Over the past five Games, the largest team was the one sent to Taipei in 2017, when 111 athletes represented the city. In 2011, some 201 travelled for the Shenzhen edition.
Hong Kong’s best result in the past decade came in Taipei, where the team won two gold and two bronze medals in swimming, tennis, and wushu.
The Games were originally scheduled for August 2021 but were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the original Chengdu 2021 branding remains in place.
There are seven gold medals, including singles, doubles, mixed doubles, and team events, for table tennis up for grabs in Chengdu, and Doo, the world No 7, is expected to win several.
Other Olympians who could take part, include fencers Kaylin Hsieh Sin-yan, and Ryan Choi Chun-yin, and swimmer Toto Wong Kwan-to. This will be the first world games for 20-year-old Hsieh, who studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Mak said the success of the Winter Olympics in Beijing last month proved that a large event could take place safely, and said as far as Covid-19 was concerned they did not “have anything to worry about”.
Chengdu will follow Beijing’s approach and operate a “closed-loop” system to avoid the spread of Covid-19, Mak said, meaning there would be no quarantine for people who were fully vaccinated.
In total, the city’s athletes are expected to compete in 12 of the 18 sports being contested in Chengdu, although the only team to represent Hong Kong would be in women’s volleyball.