Sports Hero

Badminton‧Wong Man Hing

Hong Kong Badminton legend Wong Man Hing

Wong Man Hing partnered with Fu Hon Ping to represent Hong Kong and beat the world number two host Thailand team at the badminton men's doubles tournament of the 1978 Bangkok Asian Games, and won the bronze medal in men's doubles, making historic success. Thirty years later, the scene is still fresh in Wong Man Hing’s memory: “Although the opponents’ world ranking was higher than us, we performed better than normal, after several rounds of games, we finally won! I was so excited that night that I could not fall asleep!”

Wong Man Hing (right) and Fu Hon Ping (left) won the bronze medal at the badminton men's doubles tournament of the 1978 Bangkok Asian Games

Although Wong Man Hing retired as an athlete many years ago, he has never left the badminton field, he successively served as the coach at the Hong Kong Badminton Team, the Hong Kong Badminton Association and the badminton team of Heep Yunn School, and he established the Gathering Badminton Club in 2005, committing to promotion of badminton in the community. He was awarded the Outstanding Service Award by the Hong Kong Badminton Association in 2008 in recognition of his efforts and contributions in nurturing young badminton players. The whole life of Wong Man Hing connects closely with badminton.

Achieving successes through hard practice

Wong Man Hing was born in Indonesia, his father was a badminton enthusiast. With the influence of his father, Wong Man Hing started playing badminton from the age of six. Wong Man Hing recalled that “Badminton is the national sport of Indonesia, you can see people playing badminton everywhere. I played with different opponents in the street, as I played more and more, I determined to play badminton for my lifelong career.” His first teacher in badminton was an opponent in the street of Indonesia at that time.

In 1970, Wong Man Hing came to China and joined Guangzhou badminton team, and officially entered into the badminton field. Under the guidance of the coach, Wong Man Hing realized his deficiency in physical strength and speed, so he did rope skipping and weight training to strengthen the muscular power of the upper and lower limbs and abdomen, with the aim to speed up rebounding and to lengthen the jumping time, and to enhance wrist strength and muscle explosive strength. The short period of three years in Guangzhou laid a solid foundation for his future career.

The 13 years from 1973 when he joined the Hong Kong Badminton Team to his retirement in 1986 was the golden period of Wong Man Hing as an athlete. He won numerous awards during that period, he was invincible at badminton tournaments in Hong Kong, he won the championship for seven consecutive years at the mixed doubles and men’s doubles of Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships, he further won the bronze medal at the badminton men's doubles tournament of the Asian Games in 1978, brining glory to Hong Kong. These brilliant results not only prove the strength of the badminton athletes of Hong Kong, but also stimulate the determination of local young players to achieve victory.

Nurturing talents by unique training

Wong Man Hing decided to retire in 1986 when this 38-year-old man felt his physical strength was not as good as before. He was immediately invited to serve as the coach of the Hong Kong Badminton Team to be responsible for nurturing new players. At the beginning, he felt quite difficult to be a coach: “The main reason was that a coach has to take into account more things than a player. For example, a player only needs to focus on playing at the match, while a coach not only has to develop game tactics and pay attention to the performance of the players, but also he must notice the surrounding factors that affect the performance of the players such as lighting and air flow at the venue.”

However, Wong Man Hing quickly adapted and was totally devoted to coaching. Unlike normal coaches, in addition to emphasizing physical and technical training, he also encourages the athletes to practice spontaneously. He said firmly that: “To be a good athlete, one must do hard work and take initiative practices. I will immediately require a player leave the team if he/she is lazy.” It is said that “strict teachers produce outstanding students”, under the leadership of Wong Man Hing, the Gathering Badminton Club and the badminton team of Heep Yunn School produced many good players who made good results at many competitions.

Established Gathering Badminton Club, he never retreat

The Gathering Badminton Club founded in 2005 is the brainchild of Wong Man Hing. At present, with the subvention from the LCSD Community Sports Club Scheme, the Club charges relatively low entry fee, which helps attracting people to learn playing badminton. For students with good potential but in straitened circumstance, Wong Man Hing may even teach them for free.

Wong Man Hing (back center) and members of the Gathering Badminton Club

“A good badminton player must be trained for a long time starting from an early age.” Wong Man Hing makes full efforts in exploring and training young badminton players, with the hope that these energetic youngsters will achieve success and win glory for the badminton field of Hong Kong.