Hong Kong Athletics Championships postponed, but organisers want to keep the annual flagship event going
- The HKAAA is proposing to extend the event to more competition days so that less people will be inside the venue to maintain a safer environment
- The association wants its athletes to pick up important world ranking points to qualify for next year’s Olympics
This weekend’s Hong Kong Athletics Championships have been postponed amid the latest pandemic restrictions, but organisers are trying to work out a diversified format to keep the Olympic dream going.
The national championships are considered a category B event under World Athletics rules that can offer an additional 100 ranking points to the winner. And this can help improve the athletes’ world ranking as local athletes such as Vera Lui Lai-yiu, Chan Ming-tai and Yue Ya-xin aim to earn a ticket to qualify for the Tokyo Games.
“We understand it would be difficult for us to stage the event this weekend under the current pandemic situation,” said Hong Kong Association of Athletic Affiliates chairman Kwan Kee. “But we still aim to stage the annual event this year so that we can have another national championships in 2021 to provide our athletes more opportunities to secure additional ranking points.
“We are still in discussion with the government’s Home Affairs Bureau and the understanding is that we have to reduce the number of people inside the stadium to maintain a safer environment and minimise the possibility of infection when we stage the event. It may therefore take three or four days to finish the entire championships but we still want to stage it.”
Kwan said they might allow 50 people, including athletes and officials at one time inside the venue within a period of two hours before changing it with another group of 50 people for another two-hour session.
