Hong Kong's Olympians may not be setting too many world bests at the London Games, but the city's Olympic chief has racked up a record of his own, albeit one he might not be keen to shout about.
Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, who is in London in his capacity as chairman of Hong Kong's Olympic Committee, has given up even bothering to account for his poor attendance record in the Legislative Council, where he represents the sports, performing arts, culture and publication sector. Final figures for the last of his 14 years in Legco show that he had the lowest attendance rate of the 60 lawmakers at the regular Wednesday meetings of the council. It is hardly a surprise: Fok, who is also the Sports Federation chief, has been bottom of the table in each of the past seven years and for 10 of the 14 years he's served.
A request to Fok for a comment was rejected, with his spokesman saying he did not wish to say anything about his attendance rate, which improved marginally to 69 per cent for his final year in office. He will not seek re-election in September.
Back in 2009, Fok said that attendance records were 'too simple a tool to judge a lawmaker's performance'.
Fok, son of late tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung, attended only 25 of the 36 Wednesday council meetings in the past year. The overall attendance rate by lawmakers was 97.45 per cent, up from 96.3 per cent last year.
The second worst attendance record was that of the chairwoman of the New People's Party, Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, who made it to 89 per cent of meetings. 'I occasionally go on overseas trips, and it's impossible to attain full attendance,' she said.