Omicron: hurdler Vera Lui hopes European stint can solve training problems caused by pandemic restrictions in Hong Kong
- Hong Kong’s top female hurdler is set to leave for a lengthy overseas assignment next month to prepare for September’s Hangzhou Asian Games
- The 27-year-old wants to repeat Jakarta 2018 success when she was the first Hong Kong woman to win an athletics medal in more than 60 years
Hurdler Vera Lui Lai-yiu will embark on a lengthy overseas training stint next month to avoid disruptions in Hong Kong brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic as she prepares for the Hangzhou Asian Games later this year.
Accompanied by her coach Tang Hon-sing, the pair will spend the next couple of months in a training centre in Saarbrucken, western Germany before heading to China ahead of the Games.
“We cannot have any systematic training if we choose to stay in Hong Kong as the pandemic situation is getting more serious,” said the coach. “The Asian Games will be held in September, not too far away and in fact time is running quite short if we want to get a result.
“Also, it will be a good opportunity for the hurdler to open her horizons on what the international scene looks like when competing in Europe as she needs to go through that if she wants to move to a higher level.”
Lui, along with other Hong Kong’s leading athletes, was supposed to kick off the Asian Games year with a preseason trial in early January but two days before the event was scheduled to take place at the Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground, the government shut down all sports venues after a fifth round of Covid-19 infections began to hit the city.
To make matters worse, there is no solid indication of when the venues will reopen as the pandemic situation in Hong Kong, fuelled by the Omicron variant, worsens. Tang said they had already secured a German athletic agent who would be helping Lui enter competitions to supplement her training in Saarbrucken.
“We have confirmed a number of events of bronze level that will start in April and if she progresses well, we will see if there are opportunities to compete in silver or even gold level events in Europe,” said Tang. “We will then decide when she will be heading to China to start the final build-up for the Hangzhou Games, possibly in Shanghai or Fuzhou, which produce the best Chinese hurdlers.