AT FIRST GLANCE, it could be a weekend scene from any number of parks and open spaces around Hong Kong: youngsters in T-shirts and jeans whizzing past on skateboards and inline skates, or peddling furiously on their BMX bikes.
But on this Saturday at Lai Chi Kok Skate Park, there's more at stake than showing off their latest moves to friends. The chance to represent Hong Kong is up for grabs, and this is serious business.
Among the 20 or so youngsters gathered for the competition is 18-year-old Cheng Wai-hong. Sitting on his small stunt bike, Cheng waits at one end of a half-pipe before launching himself onto the ramp.
Gathering speed on the way down, Cheng careers into the air on the opposite side and flips the bike into a 360-degree spin, making a perfect soft landing before again hurtling upwards, twisting the bike horizontal in the air.
As with most extreme sports enthusiasts in Hong Kong, BMX - or Bike Moto Cross - was once nothing more than an exciting hobby for Cheng. But these days he has his sights set on the first Asian Indoor Games, to be held in Bangkok in November, where he hopes to manoeuvre his BMX through a breathtaking routine of tricks and turns while wearing a Hong Kong jersey.
'It'd be an honour to represent Hong Kong,' says Cheng, whose dream is to make it as a professional BMX rider. 'It'd also be a chance to go away and see the world and to get to know more about the sport.'
