Gymnastics Association faces battle to retain its tier A status – ‘we need more time’
- The organisation wants a two-year extension of its review period, needing 0.25 points more to reach the benchmark set at 10
- Shek Wai-hung can help the sport retain its status if he wins a medal at next month’s World Championships in Japan
Facing the axe from the elite programme at the Sports Institute, the Hong Kong Gymnastics Association will request a two-year extension of its review period because of severe disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The sport is still 0.25 points short of reaching the benchmark of 10 points needed to gain elite voting support which usually requires two senior and two junior results to make up the review.
But since the outbreak of Covid-19 last year, most junior events had to be cancelled or postponed.
“We could not send our junior athletes to overseas events because there have been no events at all since the pandemic outbreak,” said Albert Ng, senior sports executive at the Gymnastics Association. “In fact, the review period was supposed to end last year but we all know what happened in 2020 in terms of sporting events and we have requested for a two-year extension for evaluation.
“The Institute gave us as well as many other tier A sports an one-year extension up to the end of 2021 but still there has been no change to the international sporting calendar, especially for juniors. We still cannot find any place to compete.”