Hallelujah! Finally, we have someone in a position of power who is willing to be accountable, someone who is willing to put their head in the noose if things don't work out as they had planned. Thank you Ronnie Wong Man-chiu, deputy secretary general of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, for stepping up. As the secretary of the selection committee, Wong and his people are in charge of selecting the team who will represent Hong Kong in the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, from December 1 to 15. The games will feature 45 countries competing in 39 events. Some of you may remember these were the very same Asian Games Hong Kong had bid for six years ago. The bid included a proposal to sink HK$200 million into upgrading a number of antiquated and decrepit sports facilities. Doha countered with a bid that would outlay US$2.8 billion on the games. Guess who got them? But just to show there were no hard feelings, the sports authorities in Hong Kong decided to fully accept their hosts' generosity. For the first time, games' organisers have arranged to cover most costs, including accommodation and meals, for all the competing delegations. Hong Kong will be sending a record contingent of close to 400, including 281 athletes, 87 officials and assorted administrative and medical personnel. This type of contingent would lead one to believe Hong Kong is either a sporting colossus or the ultimate freeloader. Yet despite the size of the group, tough decisions still had to be made. According to Wong, only the creme de la creme of athletes were invited. 'We are using taxpayers' money and we are responsible for the standard of the athletes we send,' he said. 'All sports and athletes have to meet strict selection guidelines.' Now as you can see through both his statements and his actions, Wong is putting his reputation on the line and I applaud him for that. In about two months we will know how our athletes fared and we can judge him and his cohorts accordingly. Adding fuel to the accountability fire this week was Pang Chung, secretary general of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee. When it emerged that games' organisers were in a tizzy because they had received 13,000 entries and could only accommodate 11,000, Pang said Hong Kong would not be cutting back on its contingent even if asked. 'Hong Kong won't reduce numbers because those on the list are competitive enough,' he said. One group that was judged not to be competitive enough was Hong Kong's golfing contingent because, according to Wong, they were not going to send their best athletes. Local golf officials wanted to send some of their top amateurs so they could get seasoning and hopefully win medals at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou on a course they know well. But Wong insisted on them sending local pros despite the fact that, according to the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, only amateurs are allowed to compete at the Asian Games. Still, why quibble. Both Wong and Pang have assured us Hong Kong is sending a top-drawer team. But what scale do we use to judge that? Let me help here. China sent a delegation of a little more than 900 to the 2002 Asian Games in Pusan and ended up winning 308 medals, roughly one medal for every three members of the delegation. So going by the standards set down by the mainland - and here in Hong Kong our leaders are duty bound to follow mainland guidelines - Hong Kong would need to return home with 132 medals, an increase of 111 from their 21-medal haul at the 2002 Games. Now bear in mind that this Hong Kong team is made up of a number of athletes who were part of the team who participated in the 2005 East Asian Games in Macau. At those games, Hong Kong barely pipped Mongolia and Guam to finish seventh overall out of nine competing delegations with a total of 13 medals. Hosts Macau garnered 44 medals. That's right, Macau. There are more people living in Mong Kok than there are living in Macau and yet they embarrassed Hong Kong. Somehow, I have a feeling our sports administrators know something we don't about the team heading to Doha. As a taxpayer you are not only entitled to question the selection process, you have been invited to question it. Thank you for that Mr Wong and best of luck to you and the Hong Kong delegation in Doha. I am sure you and your cohorts will be pleased to know that we will be following the side's exploits with great interest.
