Hong Kong quarantine leaves just 3 days’ prep for history-making swimmer Adam Mak as he eyes worlds spot

City’s first world junior medallist since Siobhan Haughey will rush back to pool after quarantine, just in time for Age Group Short Course Swimming Competition

The competition offers a chance to qualify for the short-course World Championships at senior level

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Adam Mak Sai-ting made history for Hong Kong at junior level and will now target the seniors - only three days after finishing quarantine. Photo: FINA TV

Published: 7:01pm, 13 Sep 2022Updated: 7:21pm, 13 Sep 2022

Teenager Adam Mak Sai-ting’s first appointment on arrival back in Hong Kong after this month’s historic exploits in the pool was to be locked in quarantine, but his second could open significant doors.

It has been 10 days since Mak, 16, finished third in the 200 metres breaststroke at the Fina World Junior Swimming Championships in Peru – his city’s first-ever world junior medal in a boys’ category and first for any Hongkonger since Siobhan Haughey nine years ago.

His reward on getting home was to head straight to his quarantine hotel, in line with Hong Kong’s requirement for incoming travellers, for three days there then four more of medical surveillance at home.

Once allowed back to the pool, he will have just three days at most to prepare for his next challenge: qualifying for the short-course World Championships at senior level, at the Age Group Short Course Swimming Competition at Victoria Park this Saturday.

Adam Mak won bronze at the Fina World Junior Swimming Championships this month. Photo: Hong Kong Swimming Coaches Association

Mak, though, is on a high after the success achieved in Lima.

“This was my first time competing outside Hong Kong,” he told the Post. “I was not expecting to win any medals at the junior worlds.