Paris Olympics: Hong Kong coach vows triathlete Jason Ng will have best team around him in final qualification bid
- Ng to tackle three races in as many weekends as he tries to hold onto last Games place
- Hongkonger holds ‘slight margin’ over Kazakhstan rival Ayan Beisenbayev, with China’s Fan Junji out of the picture
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Hong Kong’s Olympic hopeful Jason Ng Tai-long will have the weight of the city’s triathlon programme thrown behind him as he enters the last stretch of his race to qualify for the Paris Games this summer.
Head coach Andrew Wright said he would put out the strongest team possible to support Ng, who has three races in as many weekends to secure his spot for France.
Ng will tackle three Olympic distance races in as many weekends, starting in the mainland Chinese city of Taizhou on Saturday, and Wright said the 24-year-old would not be going it alone.
“We are sending our best four men to help, we have a strong and committed team to help [Jason],” Wright said. “I’m confident in our race plan and ability to execute it well. The key to it is committing from the start of the race and making the swim and bike as hard as possible as those are our strengths.”
Ng still enjoys a slight advantage over his Kazakhstan rival, Ayan Beisenbayev, and with China’s Fan Junjie now out of the picture, Wright said the team knew what they have to do.
“Basically it’s between Ng and the Kazakh, Fan doesn’t have enough points after the Asian Championships to close the gap,” he said. “We need to ensure the Kazakh doesn’t improve his scores by finishing in the top six.
“Ng can also improve his scores but he must get on the podium [in any of the remaining races]. But it’s still not safe, it just means Beisenbayev has to get more points as it’s really close.”
In pursuit of the qualifying berth for the Paris Olympics, Ng will be flanked by Robin Elg, Mark Yu Shing-him and Chan Yui-fung in Zhejiang this weekend.
Chan, 18, will then give way to Oscar Coggins, who will make his first official appearance since his disastrous outing at the Asian Games last September. The final two races will take place on the mainland in Lianyungang, with the last leg in Kazakhstan on May 25.
Coggins said he was excited to get back to racing and felt positive, both physically and mentally, in the last couple of months.
“I still have room to improve my fitness for later in the year but I feel like I’ve built a solid foundation,” the 25-year-old said. “I’m in better shape than I thought I would be at this point.”
Having finished fourth in the Jiangsu race last June, Coggins said he was happy to be making his return on familiar territory.
“It’s a relatively low stakes race for me,” said the Olympian, who finished 33rd in Tokyo. “The course suits my strengths and also is pretty fun to race on, so I’m hoping I get a good chance to gauge my form and enjoy my return to racing.”
In the women’s event, Bailee Brown will be the only Hongkonger competing in the two races in China.
The 24-year-old’s results in the past two Asian Championships, seventh in the sprint event in Dexing, and 12th in Hatsukaichi, mean Kazakhstan’s Ekaterina Shabalina is uncatchable in the race to reach Paris.
