Proud Hong Kong salutes its Para Games heroes
- Following on from the city’s success at the Asian Games, its athletes again shone in Hangzhou to show they deserve all the support we can offer
The city has more athletic heroes to be proud of following tremendous performances at the 4th Asian Para Games in Hangzhou. The squad clinched medals and smashed records, adding to the glory of an unprecedented showing by Hong Kong at the Asian Games that concluded early last month.
Hong Kong finished in the top 10 of the Para Games medal rankings with 47, including eight gold, 15 silver and 24 bronze. The squad’s list of achievements continued to grow up to the closing ceremony on Saturday, when women’s table tennis doubles pair Ng Mui-wui and Wong Ting-ting took gold by defeating Japan in a nail-biting final.
Joining them on the class WD22 podium were Wong Yue-ching and Wong Pui-kei, who clinched bronze. The city then dominated in wheelchair fencing with the women’s sabre team beating South Korea to a bronze – their fifth medal.
Chu Man-kai also won gold in the men’s badminton singles SH6.
Among the earlier highlights, swimmer Chan Yui-lam took the top podium spot for the second time in three days last Thursday. Chan, 20, smashed the Games record twice in the women’s 100 metres butterfly S14 at the Hangzhou Sports Centre Aquatics Arena.
She had already won gold in the 100m backstroke and silver in the 100m breaststroke. In athletics, runner Yam Kwok-fan, 26, took bronze in the women’s 100 metres T36.
The Para Games result was only one medal short of the city’s total haul at the 2018 Jakarta Games, when 11 golds were won. The latest performance complemented that of the top team, China, which finished with 521 medals, including 214 gold.
Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung rightly said the athletes and support teams from Hong Kong deserved “our great applause”, and he congratulated them for staying “resilient in difficult times”.
The latest success should lift the city’s hopes for next year’s Summer Olympics in Paris. Before memories from Hangzhou fade, the government and private sector should help ensure prospects for our athletes remain bright by pursuing greater support for the sporting community that has represented Hong Kong so well.
