Olympic hope Christy Yiu to compete in first international race in 2020 at half marathon world championships in Poland
- Yiu and teammates have to follow set of medical protocols as pandemic still rages in Europe
- The 2016 Rio Olympian needs to improve her ranking to qualify for Tokyo next summer
Distance runner Christy Yiu Kit-ching will be racing for the first time this year on the international stage as she sets her sights on qualifying for the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In a year rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 32-year-old can finally leave Hong Kong next week for the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland, on October 17.
Yiu, who set a Hong Kong record for the event (one hour 12 minutes and 52 seconds) in her last international event in Tokyo last November, will be joined by teammates Vut Tsz-ying and Wong Wan-chun, Hong Kong’s men’s leading distance runner.
They will face a strong international field of 157 men and 126 women from 62 countries in the northern Polish city. This will be the only World Athletics Series event to take place on the global calendar in 2020.
With Covid-19 still raging in Europe, Yiu and her teammates will have to follow a set of World Athletics protocols, including testing Covid-19 free before departing and again upon their arrival at their hotel.
There will be no quarantine required in Gdynia but their movements will be confined to the hotel, and training and competition venues. When they return to Hong Kong, the trio will also have to go through the 14-day quarantine requested by the government.
