Paris Olympics: did Hong Kong pick its best cyclists? Coach admits ‘difficult situation’
- Selection based on past years and a Hong Kong race vastly different from Paris’, with Chloe Leung missing out despite ‘chance of doing well’
Cycling head coach Herve Dagorne indicated Hong Kong could change selection criteria for future Olympics, but defended the controversial process that led to Ceci Lee Sze-wing claiming the city’s road race ticket for Paris this summer.
The weighting given to previous major championships punishes those with limited experience. It has also been argued that the recent Hong Kong National Road Race Championship, which Lee won to press her Olympic credentials, had a short, flat course, unrecognisable from the undulating, 158km route in France.
Following that Hong Kong race, Dagorne acknowledged Lee would benefit from competing on the road in Paris, alongside the omnium, given the 23-year-old’s ongoing difficulties with the track event.
He noted, however, that Chloe Leung Wing-yee, who won the Hong Kong time trial title and was third in the road race, “would have a chance of doing well at the Olympics”.
Leung did not compete in last year’s Asian Games road race, in which Lee was eighth.
