Coronavirus: Hong Kong lacrosse players sacrificing jobs, family to train abroad and prepare for major world tournaments
- The women’s squad are preparing for their world championship in Maryland, USA in June while the men are aiming for August’s Under 21 event in Ireland
- The teams are unable to train in Hong Kong because of Covid-19 restrictions and some are willing to resign their jobs so they can spend months away training
Hong Kong’s lacrosse teams are reluctantly packing their bags for the long haul, with players adjusting their studies or sacrificing their jobs to spend months abroad preparing for two important world tournaments.
The restrictions in Hong Kong brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic means the women’s and men’s teams are unable to train at home, forcing them to go overseas to ensure proper preparation.
The women compete in the World Championship in Towson, Maryland in June while the men’s squad are gearing up for the Under 21 Worlds in Limerick, Ireland in August.
“With all the other countries adequately preparing for this event and with us not able to, we feel it is best to get our team to Europe,” said women’s coach Jen Marrosu.
“With Hong Kong’s Covid restrictions and having weeks of quarantine we have only been able to travel once since 2019. Last October [only] half the team was able to compete at the Dalmatia Cup in Split, Croatia because some of our players have jobs that simply won’t allow them to travel for a week and then sit in quarantine for two weeks.
“We need high-level competition and consistent practice sessions to be able to prepare properly for a World Cup. We haven’t been able to see that in Hong Kong.”
Half the squad will travel to Prague in the Czech Republic on April 1 and the other players will join them as they settle work commitments and other obligations. After the Prague Cup in May, they have stops in Cologne, Brussels and Amsterdam before arriving in the United States on June 18.
The men will travel to Chiang Mai, Thailand on April 17 for training before moving on to Prague, Berlin, Wrzesnia (Poland), Manchester and Dublin and, finally, making their way to Limerick.
For players who are schooling, they will need to study online while those who have jobs are trying to work remotely, with some, like in the women’s team, even willing to resign so they can play, men’s head coach Chad Fairfoull said.
For the coaches, it is also a major sacrifice with Canadian Fairfoull’s wife only recently arriving in Hong Kong after 20 months apart, only to find out that he will be away for seven months. After the Under-21 Worlds, he will link up with the senior team in the US to prepare for October’s World Championship qualifiers in New Zealand.
“It has been impossible to train at all now,” said Fairfoull. “And now that we know this won’t change until after April at the earliest, we cannot take three full months off and expect to perform at our peak.
“This is a huge sacrifice these young men are making, spending four months away from family and friends. Even the coaching staff are making a huge sacrifice for four months.
“At present all we can do is online training and guided individual training using videos. This is no way to prepare for a world championship. The players want to represent Hong Kong proudly so they are willing to make this sacrifice to be fully prepared for the worlds.”
He said players will be held accountable for their schoolwork and exams while in Chiang Mai. Apart from the players and coaching staff, the trips are a major financial burden on the Hong Kong Lacrosse Association, which must sustain two squads overseas over several months.
For the women’s world event, 30 teams are taking part while 23 teams are competing for the men’s under 21 competition.
