Hong Kong’s budding triathletes are preparing to compete in the final Youth Olympic Games qualifiers on home soil next weekend, as they hope to end a years-long absence from the Games.
The CCB Asia Triathlon Junior and Under 23 International Championships will be the last chance for the region’s hopefuls to earn qualification points for this year’s Olympic Games in Dakar before the window closes at the end of March.
Hong Kong has traditionally sent one male and one female athlete to the Youth Olympics, including those in Singapore in 2010 and Nanjing four years later.
The streak was halted by the coronavirus pandemic, while keeping up with changes to eligibility standards has also proved a challenge, the team’s head coach Arthur Cheung Tak-hei said.
“The rules are always changing,” Cheung said. “The appropriate age is sometimes 16 to 17, sometimes 17 to 18, and we don’t know what the future holds.”
Complicating matters was the fact that Hong Kong was rarely told which races counted towards qualifying, Cheung said.
