Hong Kong's sports chief Timothy Fok Tsun-ting was overjoyed with the SAR's success in Osaka, while at the same time calling for more government support in creating a sporting culture, as the closing ceremony drew the curtain on the nine-day East Asian Games at Nagai Stadium yesterday.
A silver from wushu exponent Lo Nga-ching in the women's three-events combined plus two other silvers from rowing in the men's lightweight quadruple sculls and the men's open eight yesterday took Hong Kong's medal tally to three golds, four silvers and eight bronze medals (three golds, one silver and three bronze - excluding demonstration sports rowing and hockey).
Hong Kong remained sixth on the medal standings. China dominated with 85 golds, followed by Japan (61), South Korea (34), Kazakhstan (13) and Taiwan (6).
Fok was delighted that young members of their 90-strong squad, most notably tenpin bowling prodigy Wu Siu-hong who won two golds, rose to the occasion to win medals even though the Games did not have room for top Hong Kong athletes such as windsurfing queen Lee Lai-shan and cycling ace Wong Kam-po as those sports were not included.
'Wu's triumphs surprised me a little because he is only 16 years old. Apart from him, other athletes also delivered high-level performances even though other countries have sent many professional athletes here. There are only 10 teams here, but the level of competition was very high,' he said.
'I'm also impressed with the bronze we won in the women's 4 x 100m medley relay in swimming as we didn't expect that two 15-year-old girls would inspire the team to a medal.'
Fok, president of the SAR's Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, was referring to major games debutantes Jennifer Ng Tse-kwon and Liu Ka-lei.
