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A growing number of international competitions have been hosted in Asia while many of the Asian countries and regions have also allocated more resources on enhancing sporting performance and competitiveness of their athletes in the international sporting arena.  Joseph Schooling from Singapore, the Men’s 100m Butterfly gold medallist at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and Mohd Azizulhasni bin Awang from Malaysia, the World Champion in Men’s Keirin at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2017 are proven examples showcasing the stunning sporting achievements of Asian athletes that astonished the entire sports world.

The Association of Sports Institutes in Asia (ASIA) was founded in collaboration with Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI), Singapore Sports Institute, Japan Sport Council and Aspire Academy from Qatar, on 25 February 2015.  It is the first Asian association bringing the region’s high performance training centers together with a mission to foster the best practices in the area of long-term athlete development through a comprehensive collaboration, exchange of expertise and networking opportunities among directors, managers, experts and administrators from high performance sporting sectors in Asia.  The ASIA hosts their annual congress every year and the 2^nd Annual Congress was successfully held at the HKSI on 28 and 29 April 2017, with over 60 Mainland China, overseas and local scholars, professionals and experienced practitioners participating in the two-day event.

The Chief Executive of HKSI, Dr Trisha Leahy BBS, welcomed the distinguished experts and guests from Mainland China and overseas at the Opening Ceremony and introduced HKSI’s elite sport system framework that combining management and science models to the attending guests. She hoped that the sharing and information exchange at this year’s congress will deepen the relationship and collaboration among all Asian countries and regions, and pave the way for further achievements.

Dr Yoriko Noguchi from Japan Sport Council also delivered the welcome remarks on behalf of Mr Takahiro Waku, Chairman of the ASIA Preparatory Executive Committee. Dr Noguchi mentioned that several major international sport events will be hosted in Asian region over the next few years, such as the 2018 Winter Olympic Games to be held in PyeongChang, South Korea, and the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.  This indicates the world is paying attention to Asia and all the Asian countries and regions should collaborate and be united.  She hoped the experience learnt from each other throughout the two-day event benefited each participating country and the development of high performance sports in Asia.

The two-day congress was kick-started by Dr Yoriko Noguchi’s presentation on a topic of interest to many senior executives in sporting organisations – the governance issue of the high performance training centres.  Mr Peter Pfitzinger, General Manager - Capacity & Expertise of High Performance Sport New Zealand, explained the interdependent relationship and importance of collaboration between sports institutes and national sports associations for maximizing sporting outcomes.

The seminars then rolled out a list of topics from the best practice of high performance training centers, sports science practice, capability building, the future of sports in Asia, to athlete life.   Each topic was discussed profoundly by experts from different institutes or organisations to give participants a valuable insight on sports development and enhancement. 

With growing reputation of ASIA among Asian counterparts, six sporting organisations including the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP) (Bangladesh Institute of Sports) (Bangladesh), National Sports Institute of Malaysia (Malaysia), Sports Science Academy of Nepal (Nepal), Philippine Olympic Committee (Philippines), National Youth Sports Institute (Singapore) and National Sports Training Centre (Chinese Taipei) were admitted as Associate Members at the 1^st Annual General Meeting which took place on the first day of the Congress.  The success of ASIA was also proven by the broad participation of sporting organisations from Mainland China, Netherlands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand in the 2^nd Annual Congress.

The 2^nd Annual Congress of ASIA is an accredited event celebrating the 20^th Anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

To know more about ASIA, please visit:

http://www.sportasia.org/