Hong Kong sprinter Jasper Koo hopes to ride his burst of speed to National Games
The 17-year-old will take medal-winning form in 100 and 200 metres from Asian and Chinese championships to the Games in Guangzhou
The past six months for local sprinter Jasper Koo Cheuk-fung have felt like life in the fast lane as the teenager stormed to a series of national and regional medals while smashing his personal bests. His next stop: China’s National Games.
From winning gold and bronze medals on his Asian Under-18 Championships debut in Saudi Arabia in April to doing the same at the Chinese Under-18 Championships two months later, Koo said he was enjoying a boom in his athletics career.
“Yes, I do think I have improved over the past six months, in terms of both my strength and mechanics,” the Diocesan Boys’ School pupil said.
The 17-year-old’s recent journey began in the Saudi city of Dammam, where he clocked 20.95 seconds over 200 metres, beating Hong Kong’s under-18 record by a massive 0.32 seconds and just 0.03 seconds shy of Magnus Johannsson’s city record.
Two months later, at the national championships in Hubei, he improved his 100m time each time he raced.
He hopes to break the 10.4 and 20.9 second marks in the near future, and is expected to make his National Games debut in Guangzhou in November, competing in his stronger 200m alongside Johannsson and Yip King-wai. Hong Kong, as a co-host of the Games with Guangdong province and Macau, can send up to three athletes.