Bad timing for karate star Grace Lau; after an eight-month wait, she returns during Hong Kong’s worst Covid-19 surge
- The world number four kata exponent is targeting a medal for Hong Kong at the Tokyo Games next summer
- She left Hong Kong in February and has since been competing and training in Middle East, Europe and United States before returning to Hong Kong
Karate exponent Grace Lau Mo-sheung may have chosen the worst time to return to Hong Kong after being stranded for eight months overseas because of Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions.
Lau, a medal hopeful for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, left in February for the Premier Leagues in Dubai and Salzburg, winning a bronze in both tournaments, before moving to what she hoped was a temporary training base in Miami – which at the time was largely untouched by the pandemic.
She only returned to Hong Kong late last month just as the fourth and probably the fiercest round of coronavirus infection surges started to hit the city.
“I was in Tenerife [Spain] after Salzburg waiting for the Morocco Premier League to start but then the event was called off because of the pandemic,” said Lau, the world number four in the women’s kata.
“Therefore, I flew to Miami where I planned to stay for a training camp until July before flying home to prepare for the 2020 Olympics. But then the Tokyo Games was also delayed and the pandemic situation in Hong Kong showed little improvement, forcing me to extend my stay in Miami.”
The spread of Covid-19 in the United States eventually reached Miami, with the area recording more than 240,000 cases so far. Despite the threat, Lau said she felt safe in Doral – a small city in the western part of the Miami-Dade county.