National Games 2025: first test event this month, with more to come between now and next May

Hong Kong will stage its first National Games test event this month, with others taking place in the city between now and next May, the official charged with ensuring the multi-sport event goes off without a hitch has told the Post.

With eight sports to be staged in the city, next week’s Hong Kong Open golf will be used to assess what else might need to be done at Fanling, while the city will also form part of the cross-border cycling test event on November 24.

Potentially the largest sporting event Hong Kong has ever staged, the National Games from November 9 to 21 next year could see thousands of athletes, officials and press descend on the city, with all expected to stay in hotels and other paid-for accommodation.

Yeung Tak-keung, the head of the city’s National Games coordination office, said officials also hoped to attract tourists from across the Greater Bay Area, and were discussing packages with co-hosts Macau and Guangdong.

“Hong Kong has had certain experience in organising individual events in the past, but we are less experienced in hosting multi-sport games,” Yeung said. “We were responsible only for the equestrian events at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and then there was the East Asian Games in 2009, which had only nine countries [and regions].”

With up to 15,000 athletes expected to take part across the three centres, Yeung acknowledged the Games were “much bigger in terms of the scale and competition level” than Hong was used to, which meant “recruiting the right people and [having] enough personnel” was among the challenges his office faced.