Hurdler Vera Lui seethes inside a car for an hour before blowing away her rivals at Hong Kong Athletics Series 2
- Star arrives at Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground at 8.30am expecting to run in the heats but ends up waiting to win the straight final
- Top women’s hurdler is targeting next week’s Hong Kong Championships as a chance to set a personal best and boost her Olympic qualification hopes
Vera Lui Lai-yiu arrived at the Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground at 8.30am on Saturday expecting to run in the morning. Instead, she spent an angry hour inside a car calming herself down before waiting another four hours to hear the starter’s pistol.
She took out her frustrations on the track at the Hong Kong Athletics Series 2 event, winning the women’s 100 metres hurdles in 13.51 seconds in what turned out to be a straight final. Lui said she was supposed to run a heat in the morning and was looking forward to running two races in a day.
“There was supposed to be two heats in the morning even if there were only eight entries,” said Lui, still unhappy with the race arrangements after her victory. “I checked the schedule the night before and it still showed the two heats there and that’s why I woke up at six in the morning to get myself prepared for the race.
“Indeed, I haven’t started two races in one day for a long period of time because of the pandemic and was really looking forward to it.
“This was pretty annoying as you were focused on your preparation but suddenly the race did not happen. On the bright side, it can enrich your experience in handling different situations especially during the pandemic when races are often cancelled. Maybe this is how we grow as an athlete.”
Organisers said they only had six athletes turning up for the race and therefore ran a straight final. Despite the hiccup, Lui was not too disappointed with the result, although it was outside her personal best of 13.32 seconds.
