News

The Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI) “Jockey Club Sports Building”, funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, was officially opened today with a plaque unveiling ceremony officiated by Mrs Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee JP, Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs; Mr Anthony W K Chow SBS JP, Deputy Chairman of The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC); and Mr Carlson Tong Ka-shing SBS JP, Chairman of the HKSI.

With a generous donation of HK$103 million from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the HKSI has converted the previous athlete hostel wing into a multi-purpose training hall and elite coaching teams’ offices for long-term development of Paralympic sports, junior athletes, and coach education in Hong Kong.

The top floor of the three-storey Jockey Club Sports Building comprises a 20,000-square-foot multi-purpose training hall, convertible into two smaller rooms with a movable partition to suit different training needs, while the first and second levels now provide a base for elite sports coaching departments and dedicated facilities for coaches’ training and exchange.  In addition, the entire building is barrier-free, with a lift especially designed to accommodate two wheelchairs simultaneously.

“We hope to help Hong Kong’s elite athletes showcase themselves on the global stage, so as early as the 1970s, we allocated part of the reclaimed land of Sha Tin Racecourse for the construction of the Hong Kong Sports Institute, where we are today,” Mr Anthony W K Chow told the guests.  “Over the past 40 years, the Club has donated more than HK$700 million to support the hardware and software development of the Institute, and will fund various support and development programmes to recognise athletes and coaches for the efforts they have put in.  At the same time, we are supporting them to develop on a dual career pathway, so that they can devote themselves to sports careers and achieve more.”

In addition to financing the refurbishment of the Jockey Club Sports Building, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has agreed to enhance the funding support of two important components of the service provision at the HKSI: The Hong Kong Jockey Club Coach Education Programme and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Elite Athletes Fund, in recognition of the complementary role played by advanced facilities and a well-structured support system for coach education and sustainable elite athlete development.

Mr Carlson Tong said, “There is valuable synergy to bringing our expert coaching teams together in these new world-class facilities, which, boosted by the additional and enhanced funding from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for our programmes, will help drive the HKSI’s mission to provide an environment in which elite athletes are identified, nurtured and developed to pursue excellence in the international sporting arena.  We are very grateful to The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for the comprehensive supports it has made over the years.”

Mrs Betty Fung also thanked The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust’s support for providing additional training facilities for athletes and coaches on top of the Government-funded Hong Kong Sports Institute Redevelopment Project.  She said the Government would continue working closely with all stakeholders and wished Hong Kong athletes more medal success.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Coach Education Programme (HKJCCEP)

Good coaching has always been the central pillar of athlete performance.  The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust will be the funder of the Hong Kong Coach Education Programme, which is a signature programme for the HKSI as well as the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China and it will adopt a multi-layered approach to coach education, supporting the development of new and existing coaches at all levels of sport in Hong Kong.

Under the HKJCCEP, the Jockey Club Elite Coaching Development Programmes provide an academic, conferencing and seminar platform to drive elite coaching knowledge exchange with local and overseas counterparts to ensure that local elite coaches develop the latest top skills they need; while the Jockey Club Coaching Accreditation Programmes offer different levels of professional training to coaches at all levels from community to elite.  In addition, the Jockey Club Community Education and Coach Recognition Programmes reach out to promote coaching as a professional career to the youth community and to honour current coaches who work tirelessly behind the scenes to help athletes succeed in the sporting arena.

Head Table Tennis Coach Chan Kong-wah, who has coached the Hong Kong team for 15 years, expressed delight at the new facilities and enhanced funding, saying, “Coach development is crucial for elite athlete support and the pursuit of sporting excellence.  Our coaches have benefited from comprehensive training and development opportunities under the Coach Education Programme, which is vital to enabling them to enhance our athletes’ levels of performance in all sports.”                                             

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Elite Athletes Fund (HKJCEAF)

Additionally, established for over 10 years to support elite athletes training and development, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has committed to restructuring the usage of the HKJCEAF to recognise the HKSI’s growing needs to support for the whole person development of elite athletes.

With such an enhancement, the HKSI is well equipped to drive sustainable elite athlete development by providing multiple options for a dual-career pathway to allow them to train full time while at the same time prepare for their post athletic career transition by continuing to pursue academic, personal and vocational development through a new series of the Jockey Club Elite Athlete Education Support Programmes and Jockey Club Elite Athlete Development Programmes.

Moreover, in incentivising the HKSI Scholarship Athletes’ high performance outcomes, the Jockey Club World Championships Performance Scheme is newly developed to recognise sustained success at senior world championships events.

Billiard sports athlete Ng On-yee, who has been crowned twice this year as world champion, welcomed the enhanced financial support and new programmes, “The support has enabled me to focus on developing my skills, strength and stamina, which are vital in billiard sports.  It has also helped reassure my family that my chosen career path was solid and well-resourced.  The acknowledgement from the Jockey Club World Championships Performance Scheme means a lot to me as World Championships are indeed the largest stages to let my light shine.”

For detail about the Opening Ceremony, please refer to webcast.