Pui Kwan-kay to step down as Olympic Committee vice-president after serving for six years
- Tennis’ Philip Mok and athletics’ David Mong will vie for the Olympic Committee top post along with three incumbents
- Two deputy honorary secretaries – Fay Ho and Edgar Yeung – will not be challenged for their position
Heavyweight sports official Pui Kwan-kay will step down as one of the vice presidents of the Olympic Committee when the Hong Kong sports governing body holds its general election on Thursday.
Vying for the senior post will be two newcomers – Philip Mok of tennis and David Mong Tak-yeung of athletics – who will contend for four vice-president vacancies along with three incumbents, Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, Herman Hu Shao-ming and Tony Yue Kwok-leung.
Kenneth is the eldest son of Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, president of the committee, while Yue is chairman of the Hong Kong Table Tennis Association. Hu has strong connections with cycling and Asian tennis.
Pui, who is also at the helm in a number of individual sports, including football, judo and bodybuilding, said he could still serve sports in another capacity.
Former rower Ho Kim-fai seeking election into the Olympic Committee
“My interest is always with Hong Kong sports and it doesn’t matter if I were the Olympic Committee vice-president or just an enthusiastic sports fan,” said Pui, who was first elected in 2014 and was appointed the deputy chef de mission at both the Incheon Asian Games and the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. “I can still go for another term in accordance with the age requirement but would rather leave the opportunity to other people who want to make a contribution to Hong Kong sports.”
The International Olympic Committee requires elected officers of National Olympic Committee to retire when they reach 70 but Pui will only be 70 in January.
There are eight vice presidents at the Olympic Committee, but the remaining four are currently on a four-year term and will not need any change until the next election in 2022.
Two other officers, both deputy honorary secretaries, will also contend in the election on Thursday, but only two nominations have been received from the incumbents which means no one will challenge Fay Ho Kim-fai, the former rower and Asian Games medallist and Edgar Yeung Joe-tsi, who represents shooting.
HK Olympic Committee vows to be transparent after ‘unfair’ selection
The Hong Kong Olympic Committee has come under fire from the government’s Audit Commission recently. In its report 74 released early this year, the Commission accused the sports governing body of a lack of transparency in selecting athletes to participate in major international games such as the 2018 Asian Games.
They also asked the Committee to enhance impartiality in its appeal mechanism that is common in many countries, whereby the public could seek independent advice on sports-related disputes from independent professionals, and appeals are handled by independent bodies.
Of the more than 70 members of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, only 35 of them can vote on Thursday with two votes from each of them. There are three additional votes, one from president Fok and two from swimmers Stephanie Au Hoi-shun and Sze Hang-yu as the chairperson and vice chairperson of the Athletes Committee respectively.
