Hong Kong triathlon stars ‘need to reach whole new level’ for National Games glory
City team claims relay bronze in China national championships, but coach Andrew Wright says next year’s Games will be ‘a different ball game’
Head coach Andrew Wright has warned his triathletes they will have to elevate their “training and dedication to a whole new level” to compete for prizes at next year’s National Games.
Wright said this in the aftermath of the Chinese National Triathlon Championships on Sunday, when Hong Kong claimed bronze in the team relay, and Wong Tsz-to finished 17th in the men’s individual race in Zhaoqing.
The city team’s relay quartet featured Tokyo Olympian Oscar Coggins and leading female racer Bailee Brown, joined by Hung Tik-long and Cade Wright – a member of the Hong Kong gold-medal winning relay team at last week’s Asia Triathlon Junior, U23 & Mixed Relay Championships.
Coach Wright has identified the National Games next November as his squad’s priority for 2025.
“It was good to get on the podium without our best team, but the National Games will be a different ball game,” he said. “If we want those medals, we will have to take our training and dedication to a whole new level. We have to be as hungry as the province teams if we want to compete with them.”
Wong, who was sixth in last month’s Asia Triathlon Cup leg in Hong Kong, completed the men’s Olympic-distance race in one hour, 58 minutes and 35 seconds, to finish more than six minutes behind the winning time of 1:51.57.