Two Hong Kong record holders, high jumper Cecilia Yeung Man-wai and long-jump star Tiffany Yue Ya-xin, are hoping to take a great leap forward at a training camp in Portugal next month. The pair will join up with Rolf Ohman, a former assistant head coach of the Chinese national team, who officially joins the Hong Kong Sports Institute as a full-time coach in July. But Ohman will start coaching four months earlier to help prepare the team for the Asian Games in mainland China in September. Anthony Giorgi, Hong Kong’s head athletics coach, believes the Australian’s Ohman’s extensive knowledge across all jump events will boost the team’s chances of success in Hangzhou. “He has worked with elite level athletes across all jump events including 8m male long jumpers, 5.80m male pole vault athletes, and 1.90m high jump women,” Giorgi said. “Hong Kong athletes will benefit from his enthusiasm and passion to get the best performance out of each individual.” Born in Sweden and raised in Brisbane, Ohman has a decathlete background and has worked in track and field since the 1980s, helping athletes qualify for the Olympic Games, World Championships, and European Championships. He has been working at the Liaoning Olympic Sports Centre on the mainland since 2016. Hong Kong sprinter Ng praises influence of Asia’s fastest man Su Bingtian In 2019, American coach Randy Huntington, who works with Chinese sprinter Su Bingtian, invited Ohman to join his camp as assistant head coach of China. Yeung and Yue will be the first two Hong Kong athletes to work with Ohman in the next few months. Yue, who holds the Hong Kong women’s long jump record of 6.31 metres, lost her long time coach Animo Chan four months ago, said she definitely need guidance in the build up to the Asian Games. “After Animo left, my teammates and I felt lost and confused. The training seemed to be out of control,” the 23-year-old said. “The postponement or cancellation of many events due to Covid-19 made me lose my goals.” Yue trained with Chan for around nine years, and under his watchful eye broke the Hong Kong record eight times in 2019. She started working with Ohman online on Monday. “Rolf’s programme focuses more on the technique of running up, with his long time study on strength and conditioning, I have a high expectation on him,” she said. Yue, who aims to compete at the Chengdu Universiade in late June, wants to jump 6.5m before the Asian Games in September. Yeung, who recovered from a career-threatening Achilles tendon injury last year, also has high hopes for what she might achieve with her new coach. “The new coach is very experienced with well over 35 years of elite coaching experience,” the 27-year-old said. “I know that he is proficient in coaching all events from sprints to jumps to throws, and in the jumps, he has coached quite a lot women high jumpers to clear 1.90m.” Hong Kong elite kayakers looking for ‘next generation of beasts’ At the National Games five years ago, Yeung finished fifth after jumping 1.84m, while Wang Yang from Liaoning, who was being coached by Ohman, came first with a jump of 1.90m. “I hope Ohman will give me a new direction on training, including training methods and periodisation,” Yeung said. Her Hong Kong record of 1.88m, which she set at the Asia Grand Prix in Taiwan in 2017, is just shy of the height she hopes to reach. Many of the city’s elite athletes have been training and competing abroad over the past few months, including racewalker Ching Siu-nga in Japan, long jumper Chan Ming-tai in France, and sprinter Ng Ka-fung in China. Hurdler Lui Lai-yiu, a bronze medallist at the Asian Games four years ago, will fly to Belgrade next week to compete in the IAAF World Indoor Championships. She will then go to Germany to start a long period of training and competition in Europe, alongside men’s hurdlers Cheung Wang-fung and Mui Ching-yeung, as preparation for the Games in China.