Virus forces athletes out of Hangzhou indoor meet

It’s a no go: High jumper Lee Hup Wei is one of the athletes who was supposed to feature at the Asian Indoor meet in Hangzhou next month.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia have pulled out of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Hangzhou, which begins on Feb 12, due to outbreak of coronavirus in China.

Seven national athletes were supposed to take part in the two day event.

Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) deputy president Datuk Paduka Mumtaz Jaafar said the virus was spreading fast across China and they did not want to take a risk by sending athletes to Hangzhou.

“We wanted to use the competition to gauge the standard of our athletes against other Asian athletes in the indoor meet.

The athletes who were supposed to feature in Hangzhou are sprinter Khairul Hafiz Jantan (60m dash), Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian (60m hurdles), triple jumpers Mohd Hakimi Ismail and Andre Anura Anuar, men high jumpers Lee Hup Wei, Nauraj Singh Randhawa and women high jumper Yap Sean Yee.

“We now have to look at other competitions as some of these athletes are eyeing spots in the Tokyo Olympics in July, ” said Mumtaz, adding that athletes like Hup Wei, Nauraj, Andre and Hakimi had only until end of June to book their places in the Games.

“We are planning to send these four athletes to Europe for training-cum-competitions in April. We believe Hup Wei, who finished eighth in the world championships with a jump of 2.27m (in Doha, Qatar, last August), has a good chance of featuring in his third Olympics.

“He is ranked 16th in the world and top 32 high jumpers qualify for the Olympics, ” said Mumtaz.

The 32-year-old Hup Wei, who has featured in the 2008 Beijing and 2012

London Olympics, said he was not perturbed about not going to Hangzhou.

“It was supposed to be a just a warm-up meet and does not carry any points for the outdoor competitions.

“My focus is on the outdoor competitions and I need to maintain a height of 2.27m to win a place in the Olympics. I am optimistic of doing it, ” said Hup Wei, who has a personal best of 2.29m.

This is the second time MAF have pulled out athletes from an overseas competition this month.

Five athletes were supposed to take part in the Dahe Fajr Indoor Championships in Teheran, Iran, on Jan 9-10 but MAF were concerned about the security in the troubled region following tensions between the United States and Iran.