Lawn bowls juniors pair up for contest
Top junior bowlers had an important test at the HKLBA Golden Jubilee International Bowls Mixed Pairs Classic held last week. The Hong Kong youth development team (YDT) sent six players - Vivian Yip Wai-tak, Andrea Chan Hoi-wing, Angel So Ka-he, Adrian Yau Tze-fung, James Po Ting-jun and James Tang Ho-yin - to compete against other top overseas and local pairs. Young Post caught up with them at Craigengower Cricket Club in Happy Valley on Sunday.
The three girls participated in the singles event of the Classic last year, which was not repeated this time, while the boys were entirely new to the tournament.
Vivian has had a successful season so far. The 19-year-old is studying for a diploma in aviation customer services at the Institute of Vocational Education (Tsing Yi). She captured the two major titles - women's novice singles and women's indoor singles - in June and September. She paired up with Adrian this time. In the group stage, they played round-robin matches with 10 other teams, winning three. Vivian was not satisfied with their performance. 'I think our rival teams' standards were within our expectations. We would have performed better if we had better communication,' she says.
Adrian, 17, from Wah Yan College, admitted his performance was not reliable.
'I can play both well and badly in different matches on the same day. I need to improve my consistency in the future.'
The weather kept changing throughout the week. It was hot at the beginning and then there was heavy rainfall before the weekend. Andrea paired up with James Tang in the competition and she thinks the weather sapped her energy.
'It was raining heavily with strong winds on Thursday and Friday, and it is tiring to play in bad weather,' says Andrea, 22, who graduated from the University of Auckland this year. Tang, an 18-year-old engineering student at IVE (Tsing Yi), said he enjoyed the games although he had a tough week. 'I was grateful for Andrea's advice during the match since my ability to read the game was not good.'
Angel paired up with Australian player Grant Seeary in the tournament and they achieved the best results among all YDT players. They entered the last 16 in the elimination stage and even though they failed to get into the top eight, they did well in the plate competition (one level lower than the cup) and came third.
'Seeary is an outstanding player and he taught me a lot in the tournament. I was determined to win a medal in the plate competition,' says Angel, an 18-year-old student from St Stephen's Girls' College.
James Po, 16, from Cheung Chuk Shan College, paired up with Japanese player Nanami Yoshimoto. 'I learned how to face adversity this time. We claimed three victories in the group stage and all were come-from-behind wins,' he says.
YDT coach Arthur Yiu Kwok-kuen was impressed by his students' performance. 'Our boys and girls played against semi-professional and professional players and they performed even better than they did in training,' he says.
Yiu also told Young Post that Hong Kong will send two boys and two girls to play in the Asian Under-25 Championships in India next February. James Po, James Tang and Olivia Yu, another team member who is studying overseas, have confirmed their participation. Angel is still unsure whether to take up the last spot since she will be taking her A-level exams in March.
