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Paul McNamara

Hong Kong’s triathletes put in one of their worst performances “in a long time” at last weekend’s Asia junior and under-23 championships, and senior team head coach Andrew Wright believes the city’s training policies are to blame.
The city’s squad managed just one medal from a series of races in Wan Chai, and ahead of Saturday’s World Cup stop in Haikou, a “pretty disappointed” Wright said he hoped the sub-par displays would be a catalyst for change at the Triathlon Association of Hong Kong, China.
Hong Kong claimed mixed relay bronze, but Cade Wright in fifth and sixth-placed Nick Yip Tak-long were the best female and male under-23 individual performers respectively.
Andy Wong Nok-hei, meanwhile, finished fourth in the men’s junior event, having had to compete in an interschool 5km race three days earlier.
“That race stung him [Wong] … from two weeks before a major championships we should be telling schools they have to withdraw athletes,” Wright said, adding the 18-year-old had been sent to “way too many international events” last year.

According to Wright, unnecessary travel, combined with too many events at home, meant the younger triathletes’ training was suffering and as a result they “can’t perform at their best when it counts”.
The head coach said he had little control over race programmes for junior and youth athletes, but was hopeful a revamp may come because “lots of changes don’t happen until something goes wrong”.
“Triathlon is becoming more popular all the time, which pushes more people into the sport and raises the standard,” he said. “If you don’t go with that and keep tightening up your programme, keeping it as high performance as possible, you’re going to get found out. I think that’s what happened over the weekend.
“Your policies underpin the culture and environment in your squad, which then underpins the coaching and performance. You can’t out-coach bad policies.”
Wong was part of the city’s bronze medal relay team, alongside Yip and the Wright sisters, Cade and Tallulah.
“He’s very talented, and he’s really underdone,” Wright said. “He’s been really consistent in training, but because of the schooling in Hong Kong, he hasn’t been pushed in terms of volume compared to athletes his age around the world. He has a great attitude and will do anything you ask of him.
“He has a really big capacity to improve, so I’m excited about him. I felt sorry for him on Saturday because he should have been on the podium.”

Wright said that events on Saturday and Sunday also “showed there are massive holes in our squad”, pointing to a number of rival teams sending second-string athletes to the competition in Hong Kong.
“We have no depth whatsoever,” said Wright, who reiterated that point when talking about Cade Wright, who is no relation to the coach, having to miss Hong Kong’s first Asian Games selection race, the Chengdu World Cup leg in May, because of university commitments.
“We should have 10 athletes similar to Cade, so if one of them can’t come because of university, we’d have nine more,” he said. “But we don’t. We only have one Cade, so it’s a problem.”
On that score, Wright said it was “very positive” that Tallulah Wright will join the full-time programme after she finishes university in April.
“It’s a positive for her because she’ll be part of the squad, but also good for the environment,” Wright said. “She’s a very likeable person, and another female athlete, which we’re very short of; having more athletes in your programme creates the competitive environment you need to help drive best training practice and performances.”


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Senior team head coach Andrew Wright wants policy change after under-23 and junior squad return one medal from Asian Championships


Senior team head coach Andrew Wright wants policy change after under-23 and junior squad return one medal from Asian Championships.


Andrew Wright

Tallulah Wright

Cade Wright

Hong Kong’s triathlete association ‘found out’ by poor junior results, coach says

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Senior team head coach Andrew Wright wants policy change after under-23 and junior squad return one medal from Asian Championships

Senior team head coach Andrew Wright wants policy change after under-23 and junior squad return one medal from Asian Championships