Tokyo 2020: Hurdler Vera Lui records her seasonal best at Hong Kong Athletics Championships
- Hong Kong’s top women’s hurdler clocks 13.49 seconds in the heats for her fourth best result ever – she wins the final in 13.66 seconds
- She is looking to compete overseas to improve her time and complete her Olympic dream
Hurdler Vera Lui Lai-yiu raced to a seasonal best time at the annual Hong Kong championships before strong headwinds prevented her from improving her time in the final as she continued to chase her dream of making it to the Tokyo Olympics.
At Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground on Saturday, the 26-old-year clocked 13.49 seconds in her heats – her best time since the resumption of competition late last year that was interrupted because of the pandemic. In the final, Lui managed 13.66 seconds to win the race under a strong head wind of -1.4m/s.
“It would have been better if the two results were switched as it would have given her more additional points,” said coach Tang Hon-sing. “But her time in the heats is already her fourth best time, behind [her best] at the Asian Championships and the Asian Games. Unfortunately, she could not improve her time in the final today because of a strong head wind that was something out of our control.
“She was not unchallenged in both races and therefore we hope she can achieve better results when she goes for overseas competitions. She runs faster when she competes overseas.”
Vera Lui wins the women’s 100 metres hurdles at Hong Kong Athletics Championships.
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The coach said Lui would need two “strong results” from overseas in order to qualify for Tokyo this summer.
“She must run faster than her personal best of 13.32 if she wants to make it to Tokyo through the ranking list,” said Tang. “This is a big challenge for her but all parties involved are keen to help her reach her goal. She has had some very good results during training when she was under no pressure but she must prove it again in competition.”
Tang said they had no concrete plan which races Lui would compete overseas, but it could be in Europe. “The pandemic has caused many uncertainties. If she has to go through a long quarantine before she can compete, it would not help as it will be difficult for an athlete to keep her form in a quarantine room. We will have to find the most suitable schedule for her. In the end if she cannot make it, we hope the entire qualification process can still help improve her results as there are still the China National Games later in the year and the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou [China].”
Lui, meanwhile, was a bit disappointed with her time in the final, but refused to blame the conditions.
“My performance has been quite stable this season but of course we must look for some breakthrough to obtain an Olympic ticket,” said Lui.
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In the men’s 110 metre hurdles, Hong Kong record holder Chan Chung-wang won in a time of 14.36 seconds, which was also slower than his 14.07 finish in the heats. “This is not a bad result considering I only got back to training last month after I suffered a hamstring injury early this year,” said Chan. “My biggest hope for the year is to be injury free so that I can have some quality training and improve my time.”
The hurdler’s Hong Kong record stands at 13.74 seconds.
Chan Pui-kei won the women’s 100 metres in 12.31 while long jumper Tiffany Yue Yaxin came first with her fourth jump at 6.17 metres, also far from her Hong Kong record of 6.31 metres set at the 2019 World University Games.
