Introduction to the HKSAR Delegation

 

The 13th National Games of the People's Republic of China (13th National Games) is held in Tianjin from 27 August to 8 September 2017. In December 2016, The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) set up an Organising Committee of the HKSAR Delegation (OC) to handle all matters pertaining to the participation of the HKSAR Delegation (Delegation) in the Games. The OC is chaired by Mr Timothy FOK, President of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China (SF&OC), and consists of members from the SF&OC, the sports sector, the Home Affairs Bureau and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD). The LCSD has assumed the Secretariat duties of the OC. To take forward the specific work for the formation of the Delegation and process the appeals relating to participation more efficiently, an Executive Committee (EC) and an Appeal Board have been set up under the OC. The EC has also invited four veterans of the sports sector to join as co-opted members in order to draw on their expert advice on the participation of the Delegation in the 13th National Games.

According to the regulations set by the General Administration of Sport of China, while the HKSAR Delegation has been granted direct entry to the finals of some of the sports events, the places for the finals for the remaining events have to be secured through participating in the preliminary rounds of competitions.

From March to July, the Delegation sent a total of 323 athletes to take part in the preliminary rounds of 13 events in the 13th National Games, namely water polo, archery, badminton, baseball, football, handball, hockey, soft ball, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, beach volleyball and roller hockey. The Hong Kong teams have successfully gained entry to the finals of water polo, handball, badminton, table tennis, beach volleyball and roller hockey events.

For those events that have been granted direct entry to the finals, the EC had finished vetting the lists of athletes nominated by National Sports Associations (NSAs) according to the selection criteria endorsed by the OC. Together with the six events in which we have secured final places through the preliminary rounds, Hong Kong has sent a total of 254 athletes to compete in 22 final events of the 13th National Games, namely swimming (swimming, water polo, synchronised swimming and marathon swimming), athletics (athletics and marathon), canoe (sprint), cycling (track, road race and mountain bike), equestrian, fencing, golf, gymnastics (gymnastics and artistic gymnastics), handball, judo, karatedo, sailing, windsurfing, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, beach volleyball, wushu (taolu), badminton and hockey inline. As well as participating in their respective events, the HKSAR swimming team will also form teams with the Zhejiang, Anhui and Shanghai swimming teams respectively in the relay events.

This is the sixth time for the HKSAR to compete in this major national sports event since our first participation in the 8th National Games in 1997 after the reunification. In the last National Games, our athletes won a total of 7 medals (1 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals). In addition to the 254 athletes, the Delegation to the 13th National Games also includes 104 staff members, including team leaders, coaches and supporting staff from the relevant NSAs as well as medical and supporting staff from the Hong Kong Sports Institute, bringing the total number of delegation members to 358.

(Information as of 21 August 2017)