Top Hong Kong showjumper Jennifer Lee has urged the Hong Kong Jockey Club to continue supporting the sport, despite the failure of the local team to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Lee, who was the city's best performer at the Olympic selection trials in Germany last Sunday, has also pushed for the programme's expansion. She said one of the lessons from the failed bid in Aachen was that the Jockey Club equestrian team needed to be expanded from four to six riders.
'This lesson is something we should have really learned after the [Beijing] Olympics - that the programme should be expanded to include, ideally, six riders, or a minimum of five,' said Lee, who is not sponsored by the club.
'Injuries occur and team members sometimes have to sit out an important competition. Our team needs more depth, of both horses and riders. Hong Kong has the talent, and we just need to exploit it.'
Soon after the Beijing Olympics, the Jockey Club pumped HK$50 million into the Hong Kong Equestrian Federation to set up a four-strong senior squad - Patrick Lam, Samantha Lam, Kenneth Cheng Man-kit and Jacqueline Lai Jing-man - and a 10-strong junior squad. The funds were for a four-year period, ending next year, and were to be used for training and competition. It is not known if the club, which also gave HK$20 million before the Beijing Olympics for the Hong Kong team to buy horses, will continue as a sponsor.
Lee, riding Carry Star, a privately bought horse, turned out the best performance of the four-strong Hong Kong team, which finished bottom of the eight-team selection trials. The event was won by Ukraine, who claimed the solitary berth available for the London Olympics.
