Victor Hui Chun-fui emerged from a self-imposed media quarantine for the first time since being appointed as new chairman of the Sports Development Board (SDB) last month to declare his aim of uniting all the different factions in local sport with an eye on winning more medals internationally. 'My main task is to unite all sports people in Hong Kong harmoniously. The aim is to bring together the SDB, the NSAs [sports associations] and the SFOC [the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee]. I want to unite everyone so Hong Kong sport can get down to the business of winning more medals at major games. This is my vision,' he said. Hui, who replaced John Hung as SDB chairman on April 14, received an unequivocal thumbs up from Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, president of the SFOC, who said he would have no problems in working closely with Hui. 'I'm here to support him,' said Fok, who was present for the first board meeting of the newly appointed SDB membership at Sports House last night. 'All of us should have one focus only, and that is the athletes.' Hui, who has shunned the media since being appointed by the government, voiced similar views at a press conference held earlier, where he stated his most pressing task would be to see to the welfare of athletes preparing for next year's Olympics in Athens. 'I want to make sure our build-up to the Athens Olympics runs well and smoothly. I want to make sure all our athletes will be trained and don't run into any problems,' said the 64-year-old Hui. He said his first priority would be to extend the contracts of the coaches who train the elite athletes at the Sports Institute. All elite coaches had their contracts extended in April for only six months - until the end of September. Hui's deputy, Herman Hu Shao-ming, revealed the board was now looking at extending the coaches' contracts until the end of the Olympics. 'The most probable scenario is giving them fresh contracts until next September. This is the best we can do now,' Hu said. By stating his desire to unite Hong Kong's various sports bodies, Hui has implied that sport in Hong Kong is currently fractured. This feeling is widely acknowledged and resulted in the government carrying out a sports policy review last year. One of the recommendations made by this review was to scrap the SDB and replace it with an all-powerful Sports Commission which would be in total control of everything from finance and facilities, to the welfare of elite athletes and the various sports associations. The new Sports Commission was expected to come into existence last month. But with the government being sidetracked by pressing issues like the introduction of soccer betting and the Sars outbreak, this has been sidelined. It was no surprise the hand of friendship was truly extended yesterday between Hong Kong's two leading sports organisations - the SDB the SFOC - with the leaders vowing to work together for the good of sport. The public and symbolic show of friendship, something rarely seen in the past between the SDB and the SFOC, was expected as Hui is also a vice-president of the Hong Kong Olympic Committee. Hui's appointment as SDB head has raised the possibility it is an interim move, one which would pave the way for a total integration of the SDB and the SFOC in a new Sports Commission. 'My appointment as SDB chairman has nothing to do with the SFOC. I have spent 34 years in sport and the government must think I'm capable of doing the job,' said Hui, denying that he was the go-between in a marriage of the SDB and the SFOC. Olympic chief Fok had gone on record last year saying the government should put in place an all-powerful Sports Commission which should be run by the SFOC. 'The government should provide the facilities and the funding and let the federation run the Sports Commission,' Fok said. 'Sport in Hong Kong has been run for a long time by volunteers who are experts. We are capable of taking charge.' Both Hung, SDB boss for the past seven years, and vice-chairman Billy Kong Churk-hoi were axed last month as the government made sweeping changes to the organisation which allocates funding to all parties - from elite athletes to the NSAs. There has been widespread criticism in the past that most of the government's multimillion-dollar annual subvention to sport ($260 million last year) was spent on administrative costs and the athletes did not benefit. Hui said yesterday this issue would have to be addressed.
