HONG KONG: The National Games is not just a competition for Hong Kong’s handball team but a platform to improve the future of the sport in the country.
Winning a medal in the Games which will be held from Nov 9 to Nov 21 will be a huge success for the sport in the country and could open the door to more government funding.
Unlike football, basketball and badminton, handball is not as popular in Hong Kong and the team consist of part-timers.
Team captain Freddie Tse (pic) though believes that interest in handball is slowly growing and hopes to lead his team to a historic medal in the National Games to help further popularise the sport.
“I can see that handball is slowly becoming more popular in Hong Kong compared to five years ago,” said Freddie, who also coaches handball in schools.
“After Covid-19, I can see that more schools are having handball programme. Even kids from the age of three are getting more interested to play handball.
“For now though, we still don’t have full time handball players. All of us in the team have other jobs like coaching handball or working as physical trainers.
“We have a unique opportunity to raise the profile of handball during the National Games which will be jointly hosted by Hong Kong for the first time along with China and Macau.”
Freddie, though, acknowledged that Hong Kong face a tough task as they are up against professional players.
“We are an amateur team and we have to play against professional players which will not be easy,” said Freddie.
“In the last National Games which was held in Shaanxi, China, in 2021, we finished sixth.”
In an effort to boost their medal chances, Hong Kong have roped in Swede Kim Ekdahl du Rietz as coach.
Ekdahl du Rietz was part of the Swedish team that captured silver in the 2012 London Olympics.
The 36-year-old, who boasts vast experience as he played for clubs in France and Germany, said: “We could be playing for the future of handball. The stakes are indeed high.”
“If handball is to get more attention and resources, it will benefit the players.
“The stars need to align for us to win a medal and hopefully, we can do it.”
