Tokyo Olympics: A 40-hour trip from Japan to Spain … missing luggage – race walker Ching Siu-nga is feeling the heat as she attempts to qualify for Games

The Hong Kong number one needs to improve her best time by one minute and 30 seconds to gain direct entry to Tokyo

The 34-year-old could still make it to Tokyo by world ranking if she’s unable to reach the qualifying standard

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Ching Siu-nga in a training session with head athletics coach Anthony Giorgi at Hong Kong Sports Institute, Fo Tan. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 5:15pm, 2 Jun 2021Updated: 10:22pm, 2 Jun 2021

A 40-hour trip, missing luggage and with time running out, race walker Ching Siu-nga is facing the heat as she attempts to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics at the World Athletics Challenge series in La Coruna, Spain on Saturday.

It’s the last chance for the 34-year-old Hong Kong athlete to reach the qualifying mark for Tokyo set at one hour, 31 minutes with entries closing on June 29. Her best time, a Hong Kong record, is one hour, 32 minutes and 30 seconds set in Kobe, Japan in 2019.

Ching had been training in Japan for the last six months and travelled to Spain after enduring a lengthy trip. She had a stopover in Dubai where she was joined by coach, Anthony Giorgi, and they both travelled to the northwest Spanish city earlier this week with only one target in mind: To become Hong Kong’s first track and field athlete to qualify for Tokyo.

“Reaching the Olympic standard has always been on my mind,” said Ching, who is currently ranked 44th in the Olympic qualification list.

Ching Siu-nga (right) was named the best women’s track and field athlete for 2019 by the Hong Kong Association of Athletics Affiliates (HKAAA). Photo: Chan Kin-wa

Hong Kong’s number one race walker in the 20-kilometre race, Ching not only had to endure a marathon trip to Spain, there was the problem of missing luggage, too.

“I’ve waited for 17 hours and my luggage hasn’t arrived,” she said on social media earlier this week.

Ching has shown promise in her effort to reach the Olympic standard and feels she can make up the one minute, 30 seconds difference that is needed to reach the mark to obtain direct entry to Tokyo.