Windsurfer Hayley Chan determined to make it to Tokyo after being forced to go through the selection process again
- Hong Kong RS:X sailors will compete in two forthcoming international regattas that will act as selection races for Tokyo
- The 29-year-old Hayley Chan and Michael Cheng have won internal selection for the Tokyo Games only for the Olympics to be pushed back by a year
Experienced board sailor Hayley Chan Hei-man is determined to regain her spot on the Hong Kong squad for the Tokyo Olympics after being forced to qualify again because of the global pandemic.
Chan and teammate Michael Cheng Chun-leung won the men’s and women’s tickets to Tokyo for Hong Kong after competing at the 2019 World Championships in Torbole, Italy. The pair had their spots confirmed after going through a two-round internal selection that was completed in February.
But the global pandemic threw a spanner in the works of Chan and Cheng, who now have to go through the selection process again after the IOC decided in March to push back the Games by a year.
There are two windsurfing spots for Hong Kong at the Tokyo Games, and qualification will begin in January – provided that international competitions can go ahead amid the pandemic.
Windsurfing head coach at the Sports Institute, Chan King-yin, said they would use January’s Miami World Cup and the RS:X European Championships in Portugal as the two new selection races to decide the two Hong Kong slots.
Chan, who narrowly failed to gain Olympic selection at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, losing to teammate Sonia Lo Sin-lam, says she is ready to regain her Olympic status.