One school experienced mixed fortunes last Sunday as new volleyball kings and queens were crowned at the Tai Po and North District Inter-School Competition.
The Hong Kong Taoist Association The Yuen Yuen Institute No 2 Secondary School, in Tai Po, won the grade A boys' title for the first time - defeating TWGHs Li Ka Shing College, Fanling - but were beaten by Carmel Holy Word Secondary School, Tai Wo, in the grade A girls' final.
All four teams have secured a place at the All Hong Kong Schools Jing Ying Tournament, at Tsing Yi Sports Centre, on December 27.
In the boys' final, Yuen Yuen No 2 - led by Form Six Vincent Wong Wing-chun - a member of the Hong Kong team were big favourites to beat Li Ka Shing College. But the contest was much closer than expected. Yuen Yuen No 2 took an early lead, only for the Li Ka Shing team to fight back and draw level before the favourites' showed their superiority to clinch the title 25-19, 25-22.
A swollen ankle suffered by the winning team's pivotal libero, Sin Wai-on, before the competition, could have cost them dearly if the eight-man team had suffered further injuries.
'I hurt my left ankle in a school football competition before,' Form Four student Wai-on said. 'I kept using herbal medicine to speed up my recovery. But I was worried that, if I had problems, we had only two substitutes for the six in our team. If more than two of us got injured we would have no more substitutes.'
Luckily Wai-on and the rest of the Yuen Yuen No 2 team came through unscathed. Their maiden grade A title was extra sweet because Vincent and team-mates Cheung Wai-ki, Lee Ka-ho, So Chi-hang, Shek Chun-sang and Yung Ka-yiu are all graduating from the school in the summer.