Boots and all | All that glitters is Asian Games gold
Another Hong Kong Sports Stars Award was pocketed by the men’s sevens squad on Monday night. It was another feather in the cap for rugby but how I wish the accolades were handed out for winning a gold medal at the Asian Games.
Another Hong Kong Sports Stars Award was pocketed by the men’s sevens squad on Monday night. It was another feather in the cap for rugby but how I wish the accolades were handed out for winning a gold medal at the Asian Games.
Don’t get me wrong, winning a fifth award on the trot for the best team is a great achievement. In fact, the Hong Kong men’s sevens team has won six of the last seven annual awards in the team only category.
This goes to show their dominance and consistency. No other team sports in Hong Kong – other than cricket in the last couple of years – have had as much success, with medals at the Asian Games a rarity.
Hong Kong needs more feel-good stories from team sports . . . imagine if a group of athletes won a gold medal
At the 2010 Guangzhou Games and at last year’s Incheon Games the men’s teams, led by Mark Wright and Jamie Hood respectively, won silver medals. On top of this Hong Kong have won two of the last three Asian Sevens Series. They also qualified for the Rugby World Cup Sevens in London in 2013.
With the Asian Games being the main yardstick to measure a sport’s progress at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, winning silver medals at the last two Asian Games is a big deal.
Japan, our biggest bugbear, have thwarted Hong Kong from winning gold. If Hood and his merry men had gold medals around their necks at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Monday night, that would have overshadowed track cyclist Sarah Lee Wai-sze winning the top award for a third year in a row.
Hong Kong needs more feel-good stories from team sports. It is well and good that the system occasionally throws up a prodigy like Sarah Lee or Lee Lai-shan, but imagine if a group of athletes won a gold medal. The world loves a winner. They love a winning team even more – well. barring the organisers of the Hong Kong Sports Star Awards.
