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Coaches working tirelessly behind the scenes gained their due recognition at the prestigious Hongkong Bank Foundation (HBF) Coaching Awards Presentation which was successfully held today.

Presented by the Hong Kong Coaching Committee (HKCC) with the support of the HBF, the annual Awards scheme is the sole programme established to recognise the achievements of coaches in Hong Kong on a territory-wide basis.

More than 200 guests from the local sports community joined Professor Frank Fu, Chairman of the HKCC and Peter Wong, Executive Director of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), the two officiating guests at the ceremony, to pay tribute to the respectable group at Grand Hyatt Hong Kong.

Professor Fu, who is also vice chairman of the Elite Sports Committee of the Sports Commission, thanked outstanding coaches who steered Hong Kong sports to another successful year in 2005.

"Our athletes have returned with remarkable results from a number of Major Games in 2005. While no one will doubt their hard work and commitment for the achievements, their coaches also deserved equal recognition for the efforts they made to help these athletes," said Professor Fu. "The Awards scheme has been established since 1993 and we at the HKCC are delighted to see the gradual improvement on recognition offered to coaches in Hong Kong throughout these years."

"This could not have happened, of course, without the generous support from our long-term partner HBF which has committed more than HK$16 million to the Hong Kong Coach Education Programme since its inception in 1992. On behalf of the Committee, I would like to offer my heart-felt congratulations to all winning coaches and a big thank to HBF for your continued support to the scheme."

Peter Wong, Executive Director of HSBC expressed his gratitude to coaches for their efforts to local sports and said, "Coaches are more than just masters of motivation. They are also mentors, counsellors, instructors, and friends, providing praise, sympathy, encouragement, and guidance. They should also get the recognition they deserve. That's why the HBF has been funding the Coach Education Programme and the Awards since the early 1990s to acknowledge the importance of coaches in developing athletes."

A total of 63 awards in five categories were given at the Presentation, namely Coach of the Year Awards, Coaching Excellence Awards, Distinguished Services Award for Coaching, Coach Education Award and Community Coach Recognition Awards.

Wushu coach Yu Li-guang won the Coach of the Year Award in senior athletes, individual sport category after guiding his charges to two gold and two silver medals at the 8^th World Wushu Championships in Vietnam. Yu was a recipient of Coach of the Year Awards of 2003.

In team event of the senior athlete category, the honour went to Cui Xiao-yan, a table tennis coach for mentally handicapped sports, who was also a recipient of Coach of the Year Awards of 2003. Cui helped female disabled table tennis team to win two gold medals at the 4^th INAS-FID Table Tennis World Championships.

In junior category, windsurfing coach Wong Tak-sum took his fifth consecutive Coach of the Year title in individual sport while in team sport, the title was collected by squash coach Choi Yuk-kwan. Wong helped the rising windsurfers to clinch one gold and one silver medals at the 2005 Mistral Asian Windsurfing Championships. Choi led the junior female squash team to win two gold medals at the 11^th World Junior Women's Squash Championship and the 12^th Asian Junior Squash Championship.

Wang Rui-ji, an ex-member of the formidable China fencing team and a fencing coach serving both able-bodied and disabled in Hong Kong for more than 10 years with a long list of achievements, won the Distinguished Services Award for Coaching while Yeung Wai-man of life-saving was winner for the Coach Education Award.

41 coaches won the Coaching Excellence Awards for having led an athlete or a team to achieve outstanding performance at major international competitions such as the National Games, and the Asian and World championships in 2005. The Community Coach Recognition Awards were presented to 16 coaches who were adjudged to have made a special contribution to the development of athletes and coaches within the community for a period of three consecutive years.

Being a joint committee of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China and the Hong Kong Sports Institute set up in 1991, the HKCC aims to build an infrastructure conducive to shaping the development of coach education in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Coach Education Programme has been funded by the HBF since 1992. Throughout the years, more than 19,000 coaches have been accredited from or have participated in the Programme.

List of Recipients for the "2005 Hongkong Bank Foundation Coaching Awards" (PDF)