HKCWC Fung Yiu King Memorial Secondary School, who hosted the event, beat 30 other schools to be crowned champion, winning two gold medals, one silver, and two bronze.

The last race was the 20-minute relay race, where 10 athletes from each school took turn to row for one minute. Pok Oi Hospital Chan Kai Memorial College won the race, rowing a total of 6,109 metres, followed by students from Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Mrs Fung Wong Ting College.

Indoor rowing has become increasingly popular in Hong Kong in recent years.

'Until three years ago, only about 300 students participated in the annual championship, and some of them were not formally trained.

'But now the level of skill of the competitors has increased a lot, and the number of athletes has risen every year,' Angel Yip On-ki, executive director of Hong Kong, China Rowing Association, pointed out.

This interest is partly due to the organisation's Youth Rowing Development Programme (YDP). Since the 1990s, the organisation has conducted indoor rowing assessments on thousands of students in secondary schools and colleges throughout Hong Kong.

'The only proper training place for outdoor rowing is the Shing Mun River in Sha Tin. It's hard to introduce the sport to other students who live elsewhere. But indoor rowing is much more flexible, as we only need to transfer the equipments to the schools,' said Ms Yip.

'Indoor rowing requires pretty much the same skills as rowing in water. Since YDP started, hundreds of students have received training. Some of them have been successful in regional competitions and in the Asian Games.'