Among tear gas, protests and petrol bombs, badminton fans should be praised for supporting Lee Cheuk-yiu
- Fans still turned out in force to support the 23-year-old despite all the turmoil outside the Coliseum where riot police and protesters were battling each other
- The Track cycling World Cup will take place in Tseung Kwan O next week and spectators’ safety should come first
Last Sunday, the unthinkable happened during the badminton Hong Kong Open finals at the Coliseum in Hung Hom. While around 3,600 people were watching the action inside the venue, there was action of another kind outside the arena after police and protesters made the vicinity around the venue a battle ground you would only see in the movies. Police fired tear gas at protesters at Polytechnic University in one of the fiercest fighting since the social unrest started in June.
Even the venue’s main entrance reserved for staff members and media had to be closed during the third match (the women’s doubles final) as riot police poured into the area and occupied Cheong Wan Road outside the Coliseum.
The atmosphere inside the media room became extremely tense as the media wondered if they would be able to leave the venue when matches were over. They were worrying what would happen if tear gas seeped through the doors and filled the room. It was a scary situation.
Lee Cheuk-yiu’s Hong Kong Open triumph still stands despite controversial finish, says Badminton World Federation
Months of social unrest has forced many sporting events in Hong Kong to be cancelled or postponed while only a few events braved the situation and went go ahead, including the annual badminton showpiece, the last Super 500 tournament before the year-end World Tour finals in December.
Indeed, the organisers wanted to give the tournament a low profile, cancelling, at the last minute, a pre-event media function aimed at creating more noise to attract fans.
The tournament was important to players trying to qualify for the World Tour finals as well as next year’s Tokyo Games as it provides precious ranking points. That was probably the main reason why organisers didn’t call it off despite the deteriorating situation in Hong Kong.
Tear gas, a huge fire and tempers flare but Lee Cheuk-yiu keeps his cool to win Hong Kong Open men’s singles title
On the plus side, men’s singles champion Lee Cheuk-yiu benefited tremendously from the tournament as the home favourite surged to top 16 in the qualifiers after his victory, just enough to make him the second player from Hong Kong to join compatriot Angus Ng Ka-long for Tokyo if the cut off day applied now. The one-year qualification won’t finish until April 2020.
To be fair, the Coliseum and the adjacent Hung Hom Station were relatively peaceful leading up to the start of the tournament. But things quickly turned nasty as protesters started to block roads near the Polytechnic campus.
After the dramatic scenes at Chinese University ended in the middle of last week, the focus shifted to Polytechnic University in Hung Hom and that’s where the trouble began.
On Saturday, American player Zhang Beiwen, who reached the women’s singles semi-finals, said she was petrified walking from her hotel in Austin Road to the venue.
Badminton ace Zhang Beiwen experiences ‘terrible scenes’ as protesters set fire to toll booths at Cross Harbour Tunnel
It was supposed to be a leisurely 15-minute walk but Zhang had to endure one of the longest walks of her life as she witnessed scenes akin to “a video game” as she would later put it with black-clad protesters battling police against a backdrop of a burned footbridge and severely damaged Cross-Harbour Tunnel toll booths.
The organisers were in a quandary. They couldn’t call off the tournament once it had started.
The players had arrived and were all expecting to play. The tournament was played in an indoor venue, isolated from the reality of what was happening outside.
And if you ask players whether they felt safe during the Hong Kong Open, most of them would have answered yes. They were few complaints as they were all striving to gain qualifying points.
But what about the spectators? Most of them would not have come last Sunday had it not been for the presence of a home player in the men’s singles final because of the problem of transport. Part of the East Rail service was suspended while the Cross-Harbour Tunnel was closed – two major forms of transport to the venue.
Although attendance was down from last year, fans have to be praised just for showing up. Indeed, their support for Lee was one of the reasons why the youngster was able to lift his first major trophy.
With the battles between police and protesters raging outside, fans were fortunate they were able to escape the Coliseum by using the exits on the other side of the road, avoiding all the petrol bombs and tear gas that was bombarding Poly U.
The track cycling World Cup featuring Hong Kong’s world-class rider Sarah Lee Wai-sze will take place at Tseung Kwan O velodrome next week from Thursday to Sunday.
There will certainly be many fans who plan to attend the event at the 2,000-seat indoor venue.
Tseung Kwan O is one of the protest hot spots following the death of the University of Science and Technology student Chow Tsz-lok earlier this month. Tseung Kwan O MTR station has been closed several times due to the protests. No one knows what will happen next week.
Should organisers consider it a closed-door event to ensure safety of the spectators?
