Tenpin bowlers hoping Asian Games postponement helps them strike lucky

Bowling has a long history in the Asiad and provided Hong Kong’s first ever gold medal, for Catherine Che Kuk-hung in 1986

But it is fighting to get back into the Games via the back door after being omitted for Hangzhou, with ramifications for funding

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The Hangzhou Games have been postponed because of the pandemic situation in China. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:30am, 12 May 2022Updated: 9:45am, 12 May 2022

Tenpin bowling chiefs in Hong Kong are pushing to overturn their exclusion from the Asian Games in the hope of safeguarding their financial future, following the 2022 Games’ postponement.

Dropped from the multisport event for the first time since 1990, bowling would risk losing its public funding – which is reliant partly on its presence in the Asian or Olympic Games – if its exile continued.

That would be a blow for a sport that provided Hong Kong’s first ever Asian Games gold medal, when Catherine Che Kuk-hung topped the podium in Seoul in 1986.

Now it is fighting for a reprieve, with this year’s Asiad in Hangzhou having last week been delayed until next year in the light of China’s Covid-19 outbreak.

Catherine Che Kuk-hung wins Hong Kong’s first Asian Games gold medal, in 1986. Photo: AFP

The date switch has bought extra time for the Hong Kong Tenpin Bowling Congress to seek reinstatement, having graced all bar two Asiads since becoming a medal sport at the Bangkok Games in 1978. If they succeed, their top-level funding from the Hong Kong Sports Institute will be more secure.

“With the recent decision to push back the 2022 Games, we will renew lobbying for tenpin bowling to be put back in the medal programme,” the congress’ chairwoman Vivien Lau Chiang-chu said.