Hong Kong faces stiff competition from Chinese cities to bring back sailing’s Ocean Race in 2022
- The next edition of the race will begin in Alicante in 2021 and come to Asia in early 2022
- Xiamen, Sanya and Shenzhen are also interested in the premier sailing event after Hong Kong hosted a successful leg in 2018
Hong Kong faces stiff competition from nearby Chinese cities for the return of the Ocean Race before the organisers announce the host cities for the next edition of the sailing competition in 2021-22.
The race will visit Asia in early 2022 after departing from Alicante, Spain in the summer of the year before but there will be only one host city in the continent. Organisers are conducting a host city procurement process that will result in the full race route being announced before the end of the summer.
Other Chinese cities being considered include Shenzhen, Sanya (Hainan province) and Xiamen (Fujian province). Each is believed to be interested in hosting the prestigious round the world race. The Hong Kong government splashed out more than HK$25 million to bring the event to Hong Kong for the first time for the 2017-18 race.
“We are having ongoing discussions with the organisers and are interested in bringing the race back to Hong Kong after a successful edition last year,” said Sports Commissioner Yeung Tak-keung. “We know some other cities are also interested but have to sort out many things before we can make a decision. The organisers also have their own considerations about the route as it is a big event and they haven’t told us about any plan to announce the host cities.”
Yeung also said it is too early to talk about the cost of staging the event again after the government injected the financial resources through part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the special administrative government.
The organisers came to Hong Kong in March to discuss the next race with the government.
