Olympic swimming qualifying event to go ahead at Sports Institute in April
- Organisers will take all precautionary measures, mirroring the city’s domestic football matches to ensure swimmers are safe from the coronavirus outbreak
- Swimmers are targeting the local event to try to reach the qualification mark for the 2020 Tokyo Games
Swimming organisers of the Festival of Sports Long Course Time Trial in April have warned that they might have to hold the important Olympic qualifying event behind closed doors if the coronavirus outbreak in the city is not under control.
The annual event, scheduled for April 11-12 at the Sports Institute in Fo Tan, is part of the local qualifying events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and many Hong Kong swimmers are hoping to reach the benchmark.
Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association president Ronnie Wong Man-chiu hopes the event won’t be further impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and that it would go ahead as planned.
“There are still two months to go and we have no plans to call off the event at the moment,” said Wong, who is also the honorary secretary general of the Hong Kong Olympic Committee. “We understand many of our swimmers have already set their sights on this competition as it’s their major target to achieve Olympic qualification. They do not want any changes to their schedule as time for reaching the standard is running short.
