Coronavirus outbreak biggest barrier to Hong Kong hurdler Vera Lui’s Olympic dream
- Lui has one fewer chance to boost her world ranking after next week’s Asian Indoor Championships cancelled because of coronavirus outbreak
- The next event will be in Australia in March but travel may not be possible if Hong Kong situation does not improve
The biggest barrier to hurdler Vera Lui Lai-yiu’s dream of clinching an Olympic Games berth may not come on the track but in the shape of the coronavirus.
The 25-year-old was scheduled to race in the Asian Indoor Championships in Hangzhou next week but the continental event was called off because of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Lui was aiming for a good position in the East China city to boost her world ranking, one of the two ways to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games.
“We had high hopes in the event as regional competitions offer higher ranking points without too many quality athletes,” said Lui. “The chance is gone now and we have to look for other competitions for the same purpose. The outbreak of coronavirus makes things difficult. Perhaps soon we will not be allowed to travel to other countries if the situation deteriorates. No one knows.”
Lui said the next event in which she could compete for ranking points would be a world continental tour silver event – the Queensland Track Classic in Brisbane, but it will not be held until March 20. There will also be two gold events in the region, one in Nanjing on May 2, followed by another one in Tokyo a week later. Both require a higher standard for entry.
“We are still waiting for confirmation of the Brisbane event and I am a bit worried as we may not be allowed to travel to Australia by that time if the situation escalates in Hong Kong,” she said. “We are considering training options outside Hong Kong to avoid all these problems but we need to secure sufficient funding as we don’t know how long we have to spend on overseas training. A lot of things have to be sorted out.”
