ASIA'S top woman sculler Ho Kim-fai will be competing in her first Hong Kong Championships for four years when she lines up against the biggest international field assembled on the Shing Mun River next weekend. Ho, whose bronze at the 1991 Asian Championships was Hong Kong's first medal at a major international regatta, has not taken part in the local event for the past three years. She was making her annual pilgrimage to Italy for the Piediluco training camp in 1990 and 1991 when the Hong Kong Championships were held in April and she missed it last year because she was taking a break after the Olympic Games and the World Championships. The former schoolteacher has transformed into an international rowing star since 1991, collecting silver medals in the women's singles and doubles at the 1992 Asian Championships. Ho reached the pinnacle of her career this year by lifting Hong Kong's only gold medal at May's East Asian Games in Shanghai. She followed it up with a comprehensive victory in the lightweight singles at the Asian Championships in Seoul last month. She also won the doubles silver with Malina Ngai Man-ling. She is in the middle of a ''rest'' period before her 1994 training programme, geared towards peaking for the Hiroshima Asian Games, gets into motion on November 22. But her coach and husband Chris Perry is confident she will still win before the home crowd. ''Our whole (national) team have been off training since we came back from Seoul a week ago but I don't think Fai would be seriously challenged, unless there is a someone outstanding in the three Chinese provincial teams coming,'' said Perry. ''We have good overseas representation at this year's championships because other than the three provincial teams from China, there are eight club teams from Japan and also entries from Sri Lanka, India and the Philippines.'' Heats for some of the novices events for local rowers were held yesterday but because of strong winds and choppy conditions, the course was shortened with racing only in sheltered waters.
