While a Hong Kong Olympic Committee meeting later this month will determine the exact number, a reliable source said the final figure would definitely exceed 800, with another estimated 400 officials and technical staff members.

A selection board must first reduce an initial entry list of about 900 athletes, as reported by SCMP.

"Many Hong Kong athletes were deprived of competition opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic and with society gradually getting back to normal, the Olympic Committee will definitely encourage more athletes to join the Hangzhou Games," a source told SCMP.

"Unlike the Olympics, there is no strict qualification required by the Asian Games organisers, and there is only the entry requirement set by the Hong Kong Olympic Committee, making it easier for the athletes to take part."

The source said that with the standard of sport in the city improving, and increased Government funding, athletes were now at a similar level to their regional rivals.

"After all, this will be the first major international multi-sport event for Hong Kong athletes in the post-pandemic period and many of them are very eager to attend," they added.

Numbers are likely to be boosted by the fact that Hangzhou is relatively close, while the Hong Kong Government’s development of team sports meant that more squads would be travelling this time to the event, which is scheduled to run from September 23 to October 8.

"The programme has provided additional funding to eight sports to formulate and implement training programmes with the Asian Games as their target," the source added.

"They will therefore be given the opportunity to show the impact of that when they compete in Hangzhou."

These eight sports are men’s baseball, women’s softball and football, basketball, handball, hockey, volleyball and water polo, and all will be allowed to send teams to the Games.

Hong Kong representatives in several other team sports, such as men’s football, cricket and rugby sevens will also take part.

The city’s men’s rugby team will be defending the title they took five years ago in Jakarta.

Hong Kong sent about 600 athletes to the 2018 Asian Games, from which they returned with eight gold, 18 silver and 20 bronze medals - the city’s best haul to date.

Before that, the best performance by the city’s athletes was at the Guangzhou 2010 edition, when Hong Kong won eight gold, 15 silver and 17 bronze.

Of the eight gold medallists in Jakarta, 31-year-old gymnast Shek Wai-hung will be out to defend his men’s vault gold, which he also won in Incheon at the 2014 event, while the men’s rugby team will be favourites to claim gold for a second time.

However, the city’s track cycling team, who claimed three gold medals in Jakarta, are unlikely to produce the same results.

Sarah Lee Wai-sze, who dominated the sprinting events with golds in sprint and keirin in Jakarta, is no longer considered an elite athlete under the Sports Institute scholarship programme, which means that she will not get any support for training and competitions.

Lee, who turns 36 next week, first came to prominence at Guangzhou 2010 when she claimed a gold medal in the 500 metres time trial, before winning a keirin bronze medal at London 2012 two years later.

She captured her second Olympic medal when she came third in the sprint at Tokyo 2020.

After being dropped from the scholarship programme she is expected to announce the end of her career some time in the next couple of months.