Men’s hurdlers Mui Ching-yeung and Cheung Wang-fung will look to seal their place at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games as they kick off their European training tour with the first competition in Thionville, France on Saturday. With 2020 Tokyo Olympic athlete Chan Chung-wang missing the Hangzhou Games because of studies, Mui and Cheung top the list of Hong Kong representatives, provided they can hold off challenges from some younger athletes. “We will be looking for a good start to the tour,” said coach Tang Hon-sing, who accompanied a group to Europe that also includes top women’s hurdler Vera Lui Lai-yiu. “The two men’s athletes have fine-tuned their form since arriving in Europe and with the help of overseas competitors, we hope they can get a result.” Hong Kong Association of Athletics Affiliates (HKAAA) vice-chairman Simon Yeung Sai-mo said the pair must prove they are better than those hurdlers who stay in Hong Kong for training and competitions. “We have submitted a number of men’s hurdlers for the Hangzhou Games and will trim down the list to two by the end of May,” said Yeung, who is also director of the HKAAA’s selection committee. “We will assess the results of all these hurdlers during this period before making a final decision.” The HKAAA will be staging four domestic events before the end of May, kicking off with the 2022 Athletics Trial at the Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground next weekend which will be followed by the 2022 Athletics Series 1, 2 and 3. Coach Tang wants to see the pair achieve a time of around 13.5 seconds on the European tour, which would be a new Hong Kong record. “We expect this will be the time required if we want to reach the final in Hangzhou,” Tang said. “Maybe they cannot achieve this in the first event, but this is definitely our target. We are just at the beginning of the season and there is still some time for more competitions in Europe.” The Hong Kong record stands at 13.74 seconds, set by Olympian Chan in 2018, while Mui’s personal best is 13.77. Cheung is another hurdler that can go below 14 seconds, having previously run 13.97. Lui will test the waters in Thionville after her appearance in the 60-metres hurdles at the indoor Worlds in Belgrade last month. “She will be flying to Brazil for two international events next week and the Thionville meet will be a good warm-up race,” said the coach. “One of the events in Rio will be a continental bronze tour under World Athletics which will give her additional ranking points if she can do well.” The trio have been based in a training centre in Saarbrucken, Germany which only requires a 90-minute drive to Thionville. “We will leave in the morning for the competition before returning to the centre the same day. We have to adapt to this kind of competition mode when we travel to other cities for more competitions later,” the coach said.