Speculation that September’s Asian Games in Hangzhou could be postponed until 2023 because of Covid-19 is being blocked out by Hong Kong’s athletes, as they try to focus on preparing for an event viewed as their primary target this year. Three of the city’s hurdlers, including “Hurdle Queen” Vera Lui Lai-yiu , competed in France on Saturday after training for the past month in Germany, where they will be based for a further two months with the Games specifically in mind. However, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Friday that the Games could be moved back a year because of China’s coronavirus outbreak . The news agency quoted a senior official from the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), the Games’ governing body. Host city Hangzhou is 160km (100 miles) from Shanghai, which continues to report more than 20,000 new coronavirus infections each day and has been in lockdown for the past four weeks. “No official decision has been taken by the committee until now, but there is a possibility that it will be postponed,” Kuwait’s Husain Al-Musallam, the OCA director general, told AFP. The OCA has already postponed at least three multisport events because of the pandemic. The 2020 Asian Beach Games in Sanya, China, and the 2021 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Thailand have both been moved to 2023, and the Shantou 2021 Asian Youth Games was shifted to December this year. The Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong said in a statement that it had “not received any official confirmation from the OCA or organising committee” about a postponement, and that its athletes and officials would “continue their preparatory work” for the Games. That includes Lui, along with fellow hurdlers Cheung Wang-fung and Mui Ching-yeung, who all competed in a small meet in a frigid Thionville in northeastern France on Saturday. Lui posted a time of 14.14 seconds in the 100 metres hurdles and her coach insisted afterwards that she would continue her preparations for the Games as normal as she aims to improve on her bronze medal in the 2018 edition. The 27-year-old will fly to Brazil this week to compete in two meets there, in Sao Paulo on Wednesday and Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. “We’ve heard the rumours about a postponement, but we don’t care,” said Tang Hon-sing, the Hong Kong Sports Institute hurdles coach. “The Asian Games take up the entire season this year, so we’ll keep working on our preparations.” He said that the meet in Thionville was “a good start” to the outdoor season, even if plunging temperatures may have had an effect on times. Venues for Asian Games in China ready, officials to reveal Covid plan soon “The races took place in temperatures ranging from 8 to 12 degrees Celsius [46 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit],” said Tang, who has been overseeing the training of the Hong Kong trio in Germany since March 23. “It was simply a warm-up race for Lui before the two international competitions in Brazil, but it is a promising start under high-intensity training.” Tang said that he expected Lui to run times of around 13.50 seconds in Brazil. Her personal best of 13.32 was set in 2019. Lui’s fellow hurdlers Cheung and Mui were timed at 14.29 and 14.50 respectively in the men’s 110 metres hurdles in Thionville, but they are on track to achieve the Asian Games qualifying time of 13.65, according to Tang. “I am confident both of them can do better than the qualifying time, and I hope they show it in the next competitions in May,” he said. Mui’s personal best is 13.76, while Cheung’s is 13.97. The Hong Kong record stands at 13.74, set by Olympian Chan Chung-wang in 2018. The organisers in Hangzhou have said that all 56 competition venues for the Games are ready. Hangzhou is the third Chinese city chosen to host the Games, following Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.