Ten days before the 120-member list of participants for the Olympic torch relay was unveiled, veteran cyclist Hung Chung-yam told a forum that who carried the torch at the start and end of the relay would say a lot about the city's attitude towards athletes.
Mr Hung, chairman of the Hong Kong Elite Athletes' Association, publicly backed the city's first Olympic gold medallist, Lee Lai-shan, and world champion cyclist Wong Kam-po as the first and the last torch-bearer, respectively.
A few days before he spoke, government officials had indicated that Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen would not take part in the relay. Instead, he would officiate at the relay's opening ceremony.
Speculation, however, was rife at the time that Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, Hong Kong's Olympics chief, was still in the frame for the last leg.
It is an open secret that Mr Tsang and Mr Fok had been pencilled in for the first and last legs of the relay. Instead, Mr Fok ran the penultimate leg of the relay.
However, the apparent last-minute change of plan did little to pacify public dissatisfaction with the lineup.
