Asian Games: Hong Kong expecting to send more than 500 athletes to event in Hangzhou in September, officials say
- Olympic Committee sets out clear selection criteria after criticism made by Legislative Council
- Vetting committee to be set up in April to approve final delegation for Hangzhou Games
Hong Kong is expecting to send a team of more than 500 athletes to the Asian Games in September, officials said on Wednesday.
The city’s Olympic Committee has already sent out a set of selection criteria to respective sports associations, with qualified athletes to be nominated by Thursday.
With previous delegations sparking controversy over team selection, a vetting committee will approve the entries in April.
“We won’t know the exact number of entries yet, but according to an estimation we made early this year, there should be more than 500 athletes who will participate in the Hangzhou Games,” Wong Po-kee, the Olympic Committee deputy secretary general, said.
“There will be a vetting committee to study all these entries before we can confirm the final number and we plan to have this meeting some time in April.”
The 2022 Games will feature 40 sports including 28 mandatory Olympic sports which will be contested at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris such as aquatics, athletics, badminton, basketball, football, gymnastics, sailing, rowing and volleyball.
There will also be sports with regional characteristics such as kabaddi, and sepak takraw, or kick volleyball, plus sports nominated by the hosting country such as dragon boating, Chinese chess (Xiangqi) and Go (Weiqi) which were also medal programmes at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
