It is time to name the athletes for the year’s biggest remaining sporting event on the Asian calendar, but Hong Kong is not ready. With the city battling a fifth wave of Covid-19 infections, facility closures over the last three months have wreaked havoc with preparations for September’s Asian Games , leaving athletes scrambling to be ready and selectors asking for more time before confirming who will travel to Hangzhou. The Hong Kong Olympic Committee had previously requested sports associations to submit their list by the end of March, before deciding to conduct the procedures this month, with registration for athletes to close after the first week of May. “We understand the difficulties faced by many sports when all the facilities were closed over the last three months and as a result they could not get the latest updates on their athletes,” said Wong Po-kee, deputy secretary general of the committee. Olympic Council confident Asian Games will go ahead in September “We now plan to conduct the process sometime in early May and have also requested the Hangzhou Games organising committee delay registration until the end of May.” Wong also dismissed speculation that the Games might need to be postponed because of the increasing number of Covid-19 infections in China, especially in Shanghai – which is 200km (125 miles) from Hangzhou. “As far as we understand, all the preparation work for the Games is under progress and we have heard nothing from the organisers about any possible delay to the Games. We are still working on the same time frame,” he said. The official refused however to give a figure regarding the size of the delegation, only saying they had previously estimated they would take a team of more than 500 to the Games, which will take place in the coastal Chinese city from September 10 to 25. The Hong Kong government shut down all sports premises in early January as part of measures to contain the latest wave of the pandemic. Sporting facilities were allowed to reopen on April 7, but only to conduct training and selection processes for the Asian Games, with the public finally let back in last week. Venues for Asian Games in China ready, officials to reveal Covid plan soon While elite Tier-A sports at the Sports Institute were able to continue training in its Fo Tan complex in a closed-camp environment, many other sports had to stop their programmes over the last couple of months, particularly team sports that rely heavily on government facilities such as handball, basketball, and football. Other sports such as judo – of which Wong is the association’s chairman – have also been affected. “It takes a certain period of time before a judoka can raise his form and fitness level after such a long absence before we can make the selection,” said Wong. “Although we know all our athletes well, we still have to see how far they respond from this period of no training before naming them for the Asian Games, which is the most important event of the year.”