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SCMP Reporter

IN response to your correspondent's request for more information on the achievements of the Hong Kong squad in the World Masters Games in Brisbane, Australia, (SCMP, October 17), I offer the following enlightenment.

  First of all, there were two groups of competitors representing Hong Kong in Brisbane, the official Hong Kong squad and the unofficial Hong Kong squad.

   The official squad was chosen to represent the territory by way of qualifying competitions held in the territory sometime over the past year.

   Five sports were chosen by the Regional and Urban Councils to contest the Games.

  Participants of these sports were then selected to represent the territory.

   The five sports were archery, badminton, athletics, tenpin bowling and swimming. In all, 16 competitors and four council officials made the all-expenses paid trip to Brisbane.

  The unofficial team of 13 contested the athletics, triathlon and rowing competitions.

  As your correspondent correctly pointed out, the (official) badminton team indeed brought home a glittering array of gold medals. However, questions were asked as to whether they were indeed competing in the correct Division.

   The badminton competition was divided into three divisions. Division One was contested by players of international, national or state standard. Division Two was contested by players of club-association standard and Division Three was contested by players of lower level club-competition and social standard.

   Considering that the Hong Kong squad was an officially selected team, it's hard to see why they were competing in Division Three.

   Their match results in the finals would also suggest that they were of a high standard. It is not clear as to who made the choice to compete in Division Three.

  In Masters competitions, different sports have different minimum age restrictions. However, the generally accepted age for most sports is 35 for women and 40 for men.

  For some reason, best known only to the Urban and Regional Councils, the minimum age limit for the women's athletics qualifying competition held in the territory earlier this year was set at 40.

   Without doubt, this led to some of the territory's top women veteran athletes (over 35) being denied the opportunity to compete and win an all-expenses paid trip 'Down Under'.

  In October last year, a group of local athletes competed at their own expenses in the World Veterans Games in Miyazaki, Japan, and collected an impressive array of medals.

   The Urban and Regional Councils obviously made no effort to recognise these achievements when selecting the squad for Brisbane.

  The unofficial Hong Kong squad in Brisbane brought home three silver and five bronze medals.

  Many of these people travel to the far corners of the earth to compete in the sport they love and to try to beat personal bests and old foes.



Putting Games record straight