Paris Olympics 2024: expect team tactics in Jason Ng v Ayan Beisenbayev battle, says triathlon coach Andrew Wright
- Hong Kong Olympic hopeful Ng and rival Beisenbayev are competing for the remaining ‘new flag’ Olympics berth
- With Ng slightly ahead in the standings, the Kazakh’s team has stacked the field with his teammates to try to gain an advantage
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Head coach Andrew Wright believes there will be a lot of team tactics at play when Hong Kong’s Olympic triathlon hopeful Jason Ng Tai-long goes head-to-head with his rival Ayan Beisenbayev for the third time in as many weekends in Kazakhstan on Saturday.
Ng and Beisenbayev are competing for the remaining “new flag” berth, reserved for the highest-ranked Asian nation or region not already represented at the Paris Olympic Games, with Ng still enjoying a marginal lead in the rankings.
The Kazakh triathlete needs a podium finish at the Asia Cup event in Burabay to overtake the Hongkonger, and Wright is predicting a “great battle” as the strengths of both teams differ.
“Swim is the worst [for Beisenbayev] and he is a pretty good runner … their run speeds are pretty similar but our swim and bike legs are generally stronger,” Wright said.
The hosts are lining up 14 athletes, eight more than they did in Jiangsu last Saturday, around Beisenbayev while Hong Kong have retained the same squad with Robin Elg, Mark Yu Shing-him and Oscar Coggins flanking Ng.
The city’s head coach, however, is not too concerned about the numerical advantage Kazakhstan may possess.
“It’s normal to have all your athletes racing at a home event but I don’t think the additional ones will have much impact,” he said. “Their best ones were at the race last weekend in Lianyungang.
“The main issue now is that the China athletes have pulled out of the start list, which makes the race less competitive and more likely to become a run race.
“So, our strategy is to make the swim and bike legs as hard as possible and their strategy is to have a team of riders around Ayan to bring him back into the race.”
Ng, Elg and Yu were “visibly struggling” in last weekend’s race as the trio did not finish and Wright suggested afterwards that “optimising recovery” would be the most important objective between events.
“Jason is going well [in training] and looking forward to the race but no athlete will be at peak fitness due to having three events in three weeks,” he said. “Fitness generally erodes slightly because of the recovery needed from the races and the travel.
“Whoever is freshest on the day and has the most efficient swim and bike will have the advantage into the run.”
It’s familiar territory for Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist Beisenbayev, who is desperate to avoid a repeat of his Tokyo Olympics qualifying fate, when he failed to catch Hongkonger Coggins.
The 24-year-old Coggins, who finished No 33 at the Tokyo Games to become the city’s best performer at any Games, is putting his faith in his compatriot and feels he does not need to share his experience with Ng.
“At the end of the day, triathlon is an individual sport and he’s been racing for about as long as I have so he knows himself better than I do,” Coggins said. “The Kazakhstan team is larger but the Hong Kong team is probably stronger.
“But most of those guys will be in their third week in a row of racing so a lot of fatigue will be setting in, so it’s hard to tell what’s going to happen. All we can do is focus on recovery and race to the best of our abilities.”
