International Fencing Association pulls Hong Kong leg of World Cup, citing strict quarantine rules
- Hong Kong removed as host of fencing junior World Cup as world body rejects quarantine requirements
- This follows the cancellation of November’s Badminton Hong Kong Open for similar reasons
Strict quarantine restrictions policy has cost the city another major international event as the proposed 2022 junior epee World Cup Hong Kong leg has been called off.
The Hong Kong Fencing Association has confirmed the December 3-4 event, which forms part of the 2022-23 series and was expected to attract more than 100 up-and-coming fencers, will now move to another location.
“The International Fencing Association (FIE) prefers to have no quarantine for all the participants, but all we can tell them at this moment is that Hong Kong still adopts a compulsory quarantine policy,” chairman of the association Yeung Wing-sun said.
“We may consider staging the event under a safety bubble which requires no quarantine for participants, but it will involve a lot more extra work which may not be feasible in a short period of time.
“Of course we can still wait and see if the government will relax the anti-epidemic measures, but that will be very difficult to predict as the policy is affected by the development of the pandemic situation.
“If we decide to pull out at the last minute when there is no change of existing quarantine requirements, it may leave the world body with a bad impression as they may find it difficult to find a new organiser.”
Yeung, who attended a joint venture programme with Fila on Wednesday, said they had informed their decision to FIE and their official website had also removed the Hong Kong leg.