Coronavirus: ‘Western look’ makes travelling easier, says Hong Kong’s Oscar Coggins as he stays on track for Olympic berth

Hong Kong’s Oscar Coggins is in prime position to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after a second place at the Chennai NTT ASTC Triathlon Asian Cup, after which he told Indian media that his “western” features makes travelling amid the coronavirus crisis easier than his Chinese friends.

Coggins finished behind Serbia’s Ognjen Stojanovic, strengthening his position as the leading candidate to qualify for the Olympics from Asia. Kazakhstan’s Ayan Beisenbayev, the only athlete who can catch Coggins, did not compete in Chennai, putting the Hong Kong athlete in the driving seat for a place in Tokyo.

The 20-year-old Coggins, the son of English parents and who holds a Hong Kong passport, was asked by Indian media how convenient it was for a Hongkonger to travel given the restrictions on people coming from coronavirus hotspots.

He responded: “I would say I have an advantage since I look very western … when you show the Hong Kong passport, they ask, like, where you’ve been, if you’ve visited China, and all that. The way I look definitely helps, though. I would say some of the treatment of people who look Chinese has been quite unjustified.”

Speaking to the Post, Coggins added: “It’s more like I don’t get picked out of a crowd. It’s like discrimination and it’s unfortunate for a lot of other people. It’s once they see my Hong Kong passport that they start asking questions like if I’ve been to [conoravirus epicentre] Wuhan or the last time I was in Hong Kong.

“If you look Chinese and are travelling, people are wary of you, according to friends of mine. The way I look [as a Westerner], I don’t get that and it’s unfortunate.”