Asia Triathlon Cup: Paris Olympics and Asian Games spots at stake as city’s triathletes take on region’s best
- China to send men’s Asian Games bronze medallist Li Minqxu and top woman Lin Xinyu to race at Plover Cove
- Hong Kong’s Oscar Coggins facing battle to get to second Olympics from Jason Ng and Wong Tsz-to
The Asia Triathlon Cup returns to Hong Kong after more than four years next weekend and the city’s triathletes won’t just be battling for a spot on the podium, there are also Olympic and Asian Games places at stake.
With selection for the latter to take place by April 14, and with qualification points for the 2024 Paris Olympics also up for grabs, there will be plenty to race for at Plover Cove.
While Oscar Coggins was the city’s sole representative at the Tokyo Games in 2021, finishing 33rd, head coach Andrew Wright said there were now three legitimate contenders for a slot at next year’s event, with Jason Ng Tai-long, and Wong Tsz-to also in the running.
“It’s a good sign for us, because the last time only Oscar had the chance to get an Olympic spot, and this time, we have three to fight for it, we hope that in the future, our depth will be wider,” Wright said.
Which is not to say the talent available is small, with Hilda Choi Yan-yin and Bailee Brown also potential Olympians in the women’s event, Hong Kong has a stable of triathletes ready to take on some of the region’s best.
Those five will form part of a 30-strong squad that will go up against the likes of China’s Li Minqxu, the men’s individual bronze medallist at the 2018 Asian Games, and Lin Xinyu, the leading Chinese female on the Paris Olympic qualification rankings.
“Normally, our season begins in March, so it is a little early for our team, but it is a good opportunity with a tough China team here for us to test our winter training,” Wright said.
The Asia Cup, which was last held in Hong Kong in October 2018, will feature around 240 elite men, women and juniors racing over sprint or super sprint distance.
As well as triathletes from around the region, Austria, Hungary and Ireland have all entered, which Wright said made it “difficult to predict our team’s results”.
“But we’ll try to push our Olympic targets to the front of the pack, gaining as many Olympic points as possible.
“Our target this year is the Asian Games because it provides more Olympic points, so our next step is to decide our Games’ squad before the [April 14] deadline set by the Hong Kong Olympics Committee.”
While results next Saturday will go some way to deciding the make-up of that six-strong squad, three men and three women, Wright said there would also be a selection race to confirm who would compete in Hangzhou in September.
In any normal year there would be no question that Coggins would be among the group, but the 23-year-old struggled toward the end of last season, taking two months to recover from a bout of food poisoning picked up at the Asian Championships in Kazakhstan last September.
“I was not able to take a proper rest after food poisoning at the Asian Championships, but kept travelling and competing, it kind of affected my results late last year,” Coggins said.
“It’s nothing serious, and I’m now training very well, so I’m hoping the result this year will reflect that.”
The current under-23 regional champion, Coggins is now ranked tenth in the regional rankings, two places behind Ng.
Hong Kong will host two Asia Cup races this year, with a second scheduled for October 28, some three weeks after the conclusion of the Asian Games, which run from September 23 to October 8.
