Top track and field athletes to feature at Hong Kong Championships this weekend
- Organisers invite overseas athletes to help push performance as Asian Games entry deadline looms
- Europe-based long jumper Chan Ming-tai will be competing at home for the first time in 2 years
Track and field athletes will be given one last chance to impress the selectors with the help of overseas competitors when the Hong Kong Championships take place at Wan Chai Sports Ground this weekend.
Organisers the Hong Kong Association of Athletics Affiliates have invited more than 10 international athletes from Taiwan, Australia, and Macau to push local competitors at the two-day event with the Asian Games entry deadline looming.
Most of the city’s top athletes will be competing in the biggest domestic event with an additional 100 world ranking points at stake for the winners.
These include long jumper Chan Ming-tai, sprinter Ng Ka-fung, and hurdler Vera Lui Lai-yiu, the city’s only track and field medallist at the last Asian Games in Jakarta, where she came third in the 100-metre hurdles.
The only big name missing will be high jumper Cecilia Yeung Man-wai, who is still recuperating from an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained at the previous Hong Kong Championships in 2022.
“We will soon name the initial squad for the Hangzhou Games and will of course take into consideration the results at the Hong Kong Championships,” Simon Yeung Sai-mo, senior vice-chairman of the HKAAA, said.
“There may be more than two athletes in an event who have met the qualification standard set by the Hong Kong Olympic Committee, and we will have to choose among them, while those who have failed to make the qualification will need to improve.
“After all, the additional 100 ranking points will be crucial for athletes who want to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which is not too far away from now.”
Chan, who holds a Hong Kong record 8.12m in the long jump, last competed in the domestic series in mid-2021 before moving to Europe to train in France amid Covid-19 restrictions in his home city.
The 28-year-old will face a tough challenge from youngster Lin Ming-fu, who vowed to break Chan’s record despite only taking up the long jump last year.
The 18-year-old prodigy, who became the first Hong Kong athlete to reach the U-20 World Championships final in Colombia last summer, set a personal best of 7.66m at the Hong Kong Series 3 this month.
Lin has never competed against Chan before, making their showdown in the domestic flagship event a dream come true for him.
Hong Kong sent a squad of 25 track and field athletes to the Jakarta Games including the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams.
“We have more than four sprinters in each of the relays and will have to study their performance in the National Championships before we decide the final squad.” Yeung added.
