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The HKSI was honoured to join hands with three renowned elite sports training institutions, namely Japan Sport Council (JSC), Singapore Sports Council (SSC) and Aspire Academy (AA) for the establishment of the Association of Sports Institutes in Asia (ASIA). The ASIA is the region's first association bringing together Asian high performance training centres. It is a non-profit and non-government organisation with a mission to foster the best practices of long-term Asian athlete development through a comprehensive model of collaboration, exchange of expertise and networking opportunities for athletes, coaches, sports scientists, and administrators of high performance sports in Asia.

Dr Raymond So, Director of Elite Training Science & Technology of the HKSI, shared the concept for establishing ASIA. He said, “Asian athletes have continuously been exhibiting remarkable achievements in the highly competitive international sporting arena. We are confident that through active exchange and cooperation among institutes in the region, Asian athletes can continue to make significant progress in the years ahead. We firmly believe that the establishment of ASIA will strengthen this cooperation and give new momentum to the benefits of all people, institutes and organisations involved in elite performance in Asia.”

The cooperation was formalised through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in late February in Tokyo, Japan. A Preparatory Executive Committee has been formed to prepare for the first Annual Congress and inauguration of ASIA, tentatively scheduled for November later this year, at which point membership recruitment will commence. High performance institutes in Asia which are officially recognised by their respective government, national/international sports federation, the Olympic Council of Asia or the International Olympic Committee, will be qualified to join.

The HKSI established a partnership with the Japan Institute of Sports Science under JSC in 2011, affirming a systematic cooperation between the two institutes in different areas of high performance training. Mr Yoshinari Takatani, Vice President of JSC said, “We are delighted to sign the MOU for the establishment of the ASIA after discussions for more than three years. We hope the ASIA can be a great platform for collaboration that brings mutual benefits to all athletes, coaches, support staffs, directors and sports institutes in Asia.”

Similar to JSC, the HKSI signed an MOU with Singapore Sports Council in 2012, in the area of cooperation in elite sport training and support. Mr Bob Gambardella, Chief of SSI of the Singapore Sports Council said, “I would like to thank all the founding members for the work that we have put forward in the past couple of years to make this programme a reality. We will continue to work on creating programmes or projects that can meet the demand of the 21^st century sports.”

Professor Tim Cable, Director of Sports Science of AA was very pleased to be part of the founding partnership and said, “I am really enthused by the establishment of the Association. It is about building and creating a platform for sharing knowledge, know-how, infrastructure, people and data, so that we can advance the potential of the athletes that exist in our Academy or institution.” This is the HKSI’s first collaboration with AA, which is a globally recognised national sports academy for the development of Qatar’s athletically talented boys from Grade 7 to 12.

The signing of the MOU highlights the HKSI’s continuous commitment to provide an environment in which sports talent can be identified, nurtured, and developed to pursue excellence in the international sporting arena and to inspire potential athletes to pursue a full-time sports career, through international exchanges and collaboration with different parties to enhance the elite training and support systems.

To know more about the cooperating institutions, please visit:

Hong Kong Sports Institute
http://www.hksi.org.hk

Japan Sport Council
http://www.jpnsport.go.jp/corp/english/tabid/382/Default.aspx

Singapore Sports Council
https://www.sportsingapore.gov.sg

Aspire Academy
http://www.aspire.qa/Pages/AspireHome.aspx