Hong Kong Sports Institute ends six-week lockdown as pandemic eases
- Shuttler Angus Ng enjoys novel experience with improvement in skills and techniques
- Table tennis ace Wong Chun-ting wants to see family after staying six weeks in training centre
Athletes overcame their longest ever training camp in a closed environment as the Sports Institute ended a six-week lock down due to the escalation of coronavirus in Hong Kong.
With no local infection cases found over a period of 19 consecutive days, athletes and staff members were free to leave the Fo Tan training centre on Friday, although they still have to observe the government and Institute’s precautionary measures against the spread of the virus.
“It has been a novel experience as I seldom spend the night at the Sports Institute,” said local badminton ace Angus Ng Ka-long, the world No 8. “But I have to stay in the athletes’ hostel after training at the badminton courts over the last six weeks. In fact, our previous longest training camp was about a month during the season break in December and it was not under such an environment.
“But it really helped in terms of consolidating some of your skills and sharpening others as life was simple during this period with no distractions – only badminton. We had to struggle a bit in the beginning under this special environment before we could totally settle in.”
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Ng said he brought his own portable gaming device from home so that he could play at night time as they needed some sort of entertainment, but the shuttler still considered himself lucky during the pandemic period.
“We know some other players cannot even train during this time because of Covid-19,” said Ng. “Maybe there is no event for us to work for as no one knows when the next tournament will be but this has been a good opportunity to prepare ourselves when the season kicks off again.”
Ng and his fellow Hong Kong team members competed in the All England Open in Birmingham in early March before returning to the city when the spread of Covid-19 escalated globally. All the players were required to take the coronavirus test when they returned to Hong Kong before they were put into the lock down training camp.
With a top 10 ranking, Ng should be able to qualify for 2020 Tokyo Games which has now been pushed back to summer 2021, although the qualification period still had a month and a half to go before it was stopped.
“All tournaments have been suspended until August and we are still waiting for the world governing body if there is any update on the qualification system,” said Ng.
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About 100 athletes chose to stay at the Sports Institute when the lockdown was introduced on March 25, a week after three karate exponents were confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus after returning to the Sports Institute from a training camp in France. All three athletes have been discharged from hospital, along with two of their coaches who were later also confirmed to have the virus.
Another one was table tennis player Wong Chun-ting, the world number 21, who has already qualified for the Tokyo Games in all men’s events – team, singles and mixed doubles.
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“Some of my friends have asked if we would become insane after being locked down in such a closed environment for such a long period of time,” said the player. “I have indeed hardly spent more than two weeks in Hong Kong over the last couple of years due to training or competitions.
“We have been in Hong Kong after returning from the Qatar Open in early March, followed by the six-week closed training camp. It has been training after training but we all benefit.
“The routine was a bit repetitive inside the Institute but the place is safe under the lockdown and you can’t find another place to train if you decided not to. Now I miss my family members and want to meet them.”
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