Portraits of National Sports Association

 

Interview with the Hong Kong Archery Association Mr Dhillon, Vice Chairman and Director of Youth Development

Archery has a long history worldwide as it was used for hunting in ancient times and was later developed for military use. Having come a long way since then, archery is now a sport that is valued internationally. For this issue, we have invited Mr Dhillon, Vice Chairman and Director of Youth Development, to speak about the development of archery in Hong Kong.

From rehabilitation exercise to becoming a widely promoted sport
In Hong Kong, archery was initially promoted by Dr Lam Sim-fook, a former orthopedic doctor at Kowloon Hospital, as a rehabilitation exercise for patients. With the government’s assistance, the sport was promoted widely and the number of participants increased gradually. Some of these participants set up several archery organisations afterwards, and the Archery Association was later established in 1972.

The Archery Association is the governing body of archery in Hong Kong. It is highly significant and spares no effort in developing and promoting archery. At present, the Archery Association has 45 affiliates and more than 6,000 members in Hong Kong. Over the years, the Archery Association has provided our affiliates with assistance for venue arrangements, competition support, publicity and promotion, and financial assistance, which has allowed our affiliates to operate more efficiently and made it possible to introduce people from all walks of life to archery.

Providing training in campus
The Archery Association currently attaches great importance to promoting archery in the academic community and has arranged archery training classes with schools and universities through schools’ sports promotion programmes to identify and attract more young athletes. The Archery Association’s professional coaches visit the schools to ensure the schools’ venues meet the safety standards for archery. They also proactively provide school teachers with professional archery training in the hope of promoting archery at the school level.

Competing without end to absorb more experience
The Archery Association organises at least 40 archery competitions every year. This includes more than 10 local competitions, one locally hosted international event and two selection qualifiers, as well as league competitions with universities, affiliates and district sports associations. The Archery Association gives advice and assistance for every competition and sends members to serve as referees from time to time.

Young athletes who demonstrate potential during the competitions will be invited to join the Hong Kong Junior Archery Team of the Association for archery training, mental and physical training and discipline training. Every year, the Association sends outstanding athletes to play at least eight international events, including archery competitions held in different provinces and cities in China, the World University Games, the National Games, the Archery World Cup, the National Games, the archery World Cup, the Asian Cup and so on, which allows athletes to accumulate actual competition experience, have exchanges with overseas athletes and to improve their skills.

Making good use of the project to absorb new blood
The promotion of archery has progressed well under the LCSD’s Community Sports Club Project and has achieved remarkable results. Mr Dhillon said that the subsidy provided by the project was able to reduce the financial burden on the various associations, and the LCSD also provided assistance in locating venues and providing equipment, which encouraged affiliates to arrange training courses and competitions of various levels and fun days to give the public more opportunities to do archery. The Association hopes that more schools will hold archery training courses in the future to keep attracting new talent for archery.