INTERVIEW after general introductions between CAIS Advancement Team and Ms. Hiu Lam YEUNG and HKSAPD Rep.

Please tell us about yourself and how you got into Boccia?

I got into Boccia in Junior High. I went to interest classes and entered some competitions to try out the sport and ended up showing potential. My interest and sense of accomplishment in competing grew, and I wanted to develop this further. My parents didn’t know much about this sport but just thought it would be a good way for me to condition my physical frame and do some sporting activity.

There are different classifications within this sport. [As it is a Paralympic sport] Boccia athletes can’t be too physically capable/mobile. I have an eligible impairment for Boccia and entered the ranks of the Hong Kong Boccia squad.

Has Boccia affected your daily life?

Definitely. It started with me taking part in a few interest classes, then grew to me seriously focusing on training while I was still in Junior high. Those junior high days were packed with a school-and-training routine: school in the daytime, training after school, doing my homework after training, looping the same schedule every day.

Describe your training schedule. How often do you need to train? What is your routine?

As a full-time athlete now, I train 5 days a week, usually 9:30 to 6pm with 1 hour lunch break, sometimes only half a day. Two days off to rest. Not really long hours of training. [CAIS says that’s training for a whole working day!]

During my free times I’ll use one day to just sleep in late because I really like sleeping and training is sometimes tough! The other day I usually gather with friends and family, though I might train during weekends too. Family and friends are only free during the weekends, so it’s hard to find time to spend with them when they are free, but I try to do so as much as possible. I also get a break during public holidays.

What challenges have you faced personally and as a Boccia athlete?

Whether I face challenges in my training or in my daily life, it is about my attitude and mentality. In training, I have to keep training day in day out to a high-performance standard, repeating the same exercises. The challenge is to make the repetitive training enjoyable and more effective. In competitions, I have to find a way to get back on track when faced with losses or feeling like I’ve lost my touch. This mental resolve is the same for other life situations as well.

In which recent competition were you most satisfied?

In last year’s competition in Dubai, I competed in individual and team events [winning bronze in both]. Our success in the team event was significant as it was a new team coming together and we managed to place above Japan. You have to know that a number of top Boccia teams are from Asian countries, and Hong Kong hadn’t bettered the Japan Team for a long time, so we did our best together to secure success for the Hong Kong Team.

For team events, you need to first learn how to work together with your teammates – you need to talk together to understand each other’s issues. How long this process takes really depends on each person’s characteristics, but it was fast for us because we have known each other during past individual trainings sessions.

You have visited our campus before and seen one of our areas opened for external use. What did you think of our school as a venue?

Thank you to CAIS for making your school available to us and for your support, the venue was very good for Boccia and the supporting facilities were very suitable for Para athletes, for example accessible toilets for wheelchair users, which is very convenient. Many multi-purpose venues in Hong Kong do not have specific facilities for Boccia.

In the past when we didn’t have a dedicated training area for Boccia and had to go to Boundary Street Sports Centre for our weekly training, which wasn’t ideal as we often faced booking issues and couldn’t train as planned. The competition for these spaces is very keen, so if people are interested to try Boccia, they will face certain restrictions.

We understand the difficulty for Hong Kong people to book public venues to do sports. CAIS will be opening an Amenities Building with more space and facilities for sports and performing arts, which again will be made available to external organization outside of school hours. What if more schools could also make their spaces available?

Your school is very well equipped. Of course, it would be great if other schools could do what CAIS is doing with their venues, hiring it out for Boccia and other such sports to the public.

Fortunately, after our [Hong Kong Boccia athletes] success in competitions, we now have our own training venue for full-time and part-time athletes at the Hong Kong Sports Institute – since 2015. We’re very thankful for this. However, there are still a lot of outside people, such as budding athletes and the public, who experience difficulty in finding venues to learn and practice this sport. It would really show the spirit of sports participation in the community if other schools could provide more venues.