Hong Kong Olympic heroes presented with US$2.3 million in cash rewards at Sha Tin race day
Vivian Kong, Cheung Ka-long, Siobhan Haughey among the athletes handed prizes, while gold medallist Kong reveals wish to try horse riding
She may be an Olympic gold medallist and one of the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s newest employees, but even Vivian Kong Man-wai finds herself having to wait to give horse riding a go.
Speaking at Sha Tin on Sunday as part of a celebration race day to honour the city’s Olympic athletes, Kong said she was considering trying her hand at other sports after her recent retirement from fencing.
“I’ve looked into [riding horses] and I’ve signed up to the [HKJC’s] public riding school waiting list, but it’s really long,” Kong said.
“But I got to shoot an advertisement for this event, where we got to play with horses with [jockey] Vincent [Ho Chak-yiu]. That was really fun.”
During a presentation featuring the Hong Kong government’s No 2 official, Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki, held before Sunday’s first race, a beaming Kong received a HK$6 million cheque for winning gold as part of the Jockey Club Athlete Incentive Awards Scheme.
Her fellow fencer Cheung Ka-long also received a HK$6 million bonus for his gold medal in Paris, while swimmer Siobhan Haughey pocketed HK$3 million for her two bronze medals, with HK$17.625 million (US$2.27 million) presented in total.
Chan reiterated the government’s commitment to developing local sport.
“The government has been determined to allocate resources to support the development of sports, including providing stable financial resources to the Sports Institute through the Elite Athletes Development Fund to support the training needs of about 1,500 athletes,” Chan said.
