2021 UCI Track Cycling Nations Cup: Hong Kong welcomes first international sports event of the year as Olympic preparations heat up

Birthday girl Sarah Lee and teammate Jessica Lee are preparing for what is likely the last formal competition ahead of the Games

Youngsters Yeung Cho-yiu, Law Tsz-chun and To Cheuk-hei are out to prove Hong Kong’s cycling scene is as strong as ever

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Hong Kong stars Sarah Lee and Jessica Lee finish first and third, respectively, in the women’s keirin at the Track Cycling World Cup at the Hong Kong Velodrome, in Tseung Kwan O, in 2019. Photo: SCMP / Felix Wong

Published: 4:21pm, 12 May 2021Updated: 10:30pm, 12 May 2021

After two seasons of postponements and cancellations and doubts over whether the event would actually take place during the Covid-19 pandemic, Hong Kong welcomes its first international sports event of the year at the 2021 UCI Track Cycling Nations Cup starting Thursday and finishing over the weekend.

Sarah Lee Wai-sze, Jessica Lee Hoi-yan, Yeung Cho-yiu, Law Tsz-chun and To Cheuk-hei make up the five local entrants competing at the Hong Kong Velodrome in Tseung Kwan O in what is likely the team’s final outing ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games this summer. Points will also go towards the UCI World Championships in Turkmenistan in October.

Held in a strict government-approved Covid-19 precautionary bubble, no spectators will be allowed into the venue but fans will be able to watch the likes of Japan’s world championship women’s omnium gold medallist Yumi Kajihara and 2019 Asian championship women’s keirin gold medallist Yuka Kobayashi on livestream TV.

Sarah Lee, who celebrated her 34th birthday on Wednesday, will be competing for the first time in more than 14 months as she looks to peak for Tokyo. The sprint, keirin, and team sprint competitor won a bronze at the world championships in Germany last February and notably won a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics – Hong Kong’s third Olympic medal ever.

UCI Track Cycling World Championship silver medallist Anastasiia Voinova of Russia (left), gold medallist Emma Hinze of Germany (centre), and bronze medallist Sarah Lee of Hong Kong on the podium in Berlin in February 2020. Photo: AFP

Teammate Jessica Lee is likewise using this event as a last rehearsal ahead of her Olympics debut. The Scotland-raised sprint, keirin, time trial and team speed race competitor will be itching to return to the track having joined many athletes in spending months locked down in the Hong Kong Sports Institute.

Newcomer Yeung, a former national handball team player, hopes to follow in the Lees’ footsteps and improve upon her gold medals in the youth UCI 500m time trials in 2018 with every race. The 20-year-old joins the team sprint race as one of the next generation’s most promising local women’s cyclists.