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A list of 176 awardees of the 2016 Jockey Club Hong Kong Coaching Awards was announced at the Presentation Ceremony held at the Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI) today, with aims to recognise the coaches’ dedication in identifying and nurturing Hong Kong athletes to achieve outstanding results at both regional and international sporting arena, and also in developing sports across community and school levels.

The nominations received for this edition hit a record high of 218, running for honours in seven categories, namely Coach of the Year Awards, Distinguished Services Award for Coaching, Coach Education Award, Best Team Sport Coach Award, Coaching Excellence Awards, Community Coach Recognition Awards and School Coach Recognition Awards. The School Coach Recognition Awards, which was incepted last year, recorded a leap in nomination number from 16 to 45.

Mr Lau Kong-wah JP, Secretary for Home Affairs; Ms Rhoda Chan, Head of Charities (Grant Making – Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture) of The Hong Kong Jockey Club and Mr Adam Koo, Chairman of the Hong Kong Coaching Committee officiated at the Ceremony.

Mr Koo said, “In 2016, Hong Kong athletes and coaches not only demonstrated the true essence of the Olympic spirit at the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games, they also showed to the world the iconic Hong Kong spirit of perseverance. In addition, Hong Kong athletes set a number of historical records in the World Championships and Asian Championships over the year, and took home over 210 medals. All these achievements relied heavily on a group of coaches who have been contributing their effort behind the scenes.  I would like to extend my gratitude to them and tender my best wishes to our coaches and athletes in 2017.”

“We would like to show our appreciation to all the coaches who have won awards for their efforts and patience in training and encouraging athletes, so that the Hong Kong sports sector can deliver outstanding performances,” Ms Chan said. “Taking Hong Kong athletes to the international stage has always been The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s goal. To achieve that, the Club has been supporting both software and hardware development of HKSI over the years. We believe sports are not only good for health, but can also spread positive values in the community, so we have been proactively promoting the ‘Sports for All’ culture, encouraging citizens to make exercise a part of their everyday life.”

Nominees for the Coach of the Year Awards (COY) are on par in terms of their sporting achievements.  The list of awardees concluded as follow: boccia coach and the leader of the 2016 Paralympic boccia team, Kwok Hart-wing, and cycling coach Shen Jinkang were both crowned the COY title in the senior athletes, individual sport category; wheelchair fencing coach Chen Yu and squash coach Chiu Wing-yin Rebecca were awarded the title in senior athletes, team event category; wushu coach Ye Jun and table tennis coach Zhang Rui earned the title in junior athletes, individual sport and team event respectively.

One of the renowned achievements of coach Kwok Hart-wing is the gold medal won in the 2016 Rio Paralympics by boccia athlete Leung Yuk-wing, who is now top player in the world (BC4 Individual category). Over the 12 years since Leung claimed his first gold medal at the Athens Paralympics, coach Kwok and his team have been working closely with Leung from reviewing performances in his ups and downs, to enhancing his training programme. Coach Kwok won his first COY honour in the senior athletes, team event category in 2014.

Coach Shen Jinkang was named his 9th COY honour with his notable efforts in raising international profile of the Hong Kong cycling team. Last year, he led the senior squad to compete at the Asian Championship, UCI Track Cycling World Championships, UCI Track Cycling World Cup Series and won a medal tally of 5 golds, 5 silvers and 3 bronzes. Shen’s promising apprentice, Cheung King-lok, became the first ever athlete who managed to earn two Asian titles in the road race events at the Asian Championship last year.

Coach Chen Yu lifted the COY title in the same category in 2013. His wheelchair fencing team won a silver medal in women’s epee team event at the Rio Paralympics.  Veteran wheelchair fencer, Yu Chui-yee also won a silver medal at the women's foil individual category A event. Remarkable results were also attained at the IWAS Asian Championship and IWAS World Cup where the team won a total of 3 gold and 3 bronze medals.

Coach Chiu Wing-yin Rebecca was awarded the COY title for the second time in three years, by leading the squash team to win a silver medal in the mixed team event at the 9th World University Squash Championships; and also a historical bronze medal in the women’s team event at the WSF Women's World Team Squash Championships.

Wushu coach Ye Jun led the Junior wushu squad and bagged home with 2 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze medals from the 6th World Junior Wushu Championships. These outstanding achievements earned coach Ye his debut COY title.

Coach Zhang Rui was named the COY honour for the first time. She brought up the young table tennis player Doo Hoi-kem who is now placed at top 10 of the world ranking.  Doo won a silver medal in women’s U21 individual event at the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals.  Coach Zhang also led the junior team to win a silver medal in the girls’ team at the World Junior Championships.

Distinguished Services Award for Coaching went to wushu coach Law Kin-keung in recognition of his unrelenting service to the sport for over 25 years. Coach Law has been devoting himself in exploring and engaging more potential athletes from the local community and schools to join the wushu sports.  Being an international wushu judge, he also shared insights on training techniques and methods for accelerating performance with athletes in order to assist them stepping up with the world standard.

Cycling coach Lai Oi-yan was presented with the Coach Education Award. Not only performing the role as a tutor for different coach education classes, coach Lai also managed to design various teaching materials and training programmes. Her eagerness to continuous learning sets a good role model for other coaches.

Last year, rugby coach Gareth Baber led the Hong Kong senior men’s rugby seven team to achieve top ranking at the Asia Rugby Sevens Series, after rounds of fights with many powerhouses. This stunning achievement earned coach Baber the Best Team Sport Coach Award for the second time since 2014.

The Coaching Excellence Awards were handed to 95 coaches who led athletes to achieve outstanding performance at the major international competitions in 2016, while 27 coaches were presented with the Community Coach Recognition Awards for their special contributions to coaching athletes in the community for a period of not less than three consecutive years.  In addition, the School Coach Recognition Awards honoured 45 full-time teachers who have made special contribution to school sports over the year.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Coach Education Programme (HKJCCEP) is funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust with a donation of some HK$9.7 million since November 2015.  HKJCCEP consists of three major components including the Jockey Club Elite Coaching Development Programmes; the Jockey Club Coaching Accreditation Programmes; and the Jockey Club Community Education, as well as Coach Recognition Programmes to further support the career development of coaches.  The annual Jockey Club Hong Kong Coaching Awards falls into the third category which recognises coaches’ contribution to athlete training and development in Hong Kong.

The Jockey Club Hong Kong Coaching Awards is organised by the Hong Kong Coaching Committee, a joint committee of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China and the Hong Kong Sports Institute, which was established in 1991 with the aims of formulating and implementing short-term and long-term strategies for the development of coach education and accreditation programmes in Hong Kong. Over the years, more than 89,000 participants have benefited from the Programme.

For the List of Recipients for the 2016 Jockey Club Hong Kong Coaching Awards, please click here.  For the past recipients, please click here.