2024 Paris Olympics: Hong Kong to host final round of breaking qualifier as part of packed 10 days of dance sport
- More than 400 athletes expected to descend on city for seventh stop in the Breaking For Gold World Series
- Hong Kong to host World Latin Formation Championships and Asian DanceSport Championships in December extravaganza
Hong Kong will host the final round of the Breaking for Gold World Series, an Olympic qualifier for breaking dancing, with more than 400 athletes expected to compete at Queen Elizabeth Stadium.
A total of seven events will be held this year, with the first starting on Friday in Japan and concluding in Hong Kong in December.
The series stop will form part of the Hong Kong Open, which runs from December 15 to Christmas Eve and will include three events, George Yip Chi-wai, president of the city’s DanceSport Association, told the Post.
With the World Formation Latin Championships and the Asian DanceSport Championships also due to be held during the same 10-day period, more than 800 dancers are expected to descend on the city.
Yip estimated the total budget to host the three competitions would be around HK$5 million, and said he was talking to officials to have it classed as an “M Mark” event, which would bring government funding.
“The government’s initial feedback is that they are willing to include the Breaking for Gold and the Formation Latin Worlds as ‘M Mark’ events [separately], but what we want to sell is the Hong Kong Open as a whole,” Yip said. “We will host it annually, similar to the prestigious German Open in DanceSport.”
“It is a unique tournament that brings together amateurs and professionals from every class in a single event. We do not have this kind of German Open in Asia yet, and hopefully we can have the government’s support to run it annually.”
Olympic qualifying in Kitakyushu this week kick-starts a process that will take in stops in Brazil, Canada, Austria and Portugal before the series wraps up in Hong Kong, and six of the city’s athletes are in Japan beginning their bids to make it to Paris next year.
Led by Tsang Tsz Wa, who competes as B-Boy Think, and Sze Ka-yam, B-Boy C Plus, the group are in training in Tokyo, with leading coaches from Japan’s Found Nation Crew, before heading to the competition venue on Wednesday.
“This is the first time our team has gone overseas for training, and we are fortunate to have two world-leading breakers to be the team’s trainers,” Lam Sang-yuen, chairman of the association’s Breaking Division, said.
Hong Kong squad: Tsang Tsz Wa (B-Boy Think), Sze Ka-yam (B-Boy C Plus), Sze Kwong-yik (B-Boy Sosze), Chan Ka-yi (B-Girl Lady Little), Helen Ho Pui-yee (B-Girl Pui Yee) and Wong Chiu-wai (B-Girl Lady Banan).
