By Neha Aggarwal
With a total of 122 nominations from 45 National Sports Associations for 2016’s achievements, the competition to be amongst the winners in six categories of the prestigious Samsung 2016 Hong Kong Sports Stars Awards was intense. Winners were selected through voting by a panel of judges, the Hong Kong Sports Media, and the public.
The results of the “Samsung 2016 Hong Kong Sports Stars Awards” was announced at the Awards Presentation Ceremony on 21 March 2017 at the Grand Hall of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The following table tennis players were the proud winners:
Wong Chun Ting- Hong Kong Sports Stars Award
Mak Tze Wing- Hong Kong Junior Sports Stars Award
Soo Wai Yam Minnie- Hong Kong Most Promising Sports Stars Award
The star of the evening, World no.7, Wong Chun Ting, who won the Hong Kong Sports Stars Award said,
“First time being a nominee of the Hong Kong Sports Star Award, I am grateful to be endowed with the honor of being granted the title of a Hong Kong Sports Star. I must thank all who have believed in me and commended my efforts in my career. I will continue to strive for my best in the future to aim for more outbreaks and achievements.”- Wong Chun Ting
This unique award function is conducted to encourage Hong Kong’s athletes and teams to strive for excellence which will create role models and inspiration for the youth of Hong Kong. The association believes that such an initiative will encourage the community’s involvement in sports to further promote the sports culture in Hong Kong and thus help to promote sports development in Hong Kong.
Mak Tze Wing, ranked no.24 in Under-21 Women’s Singles, was the winner of the Hong Kong Junior Sports Stars Award. She said, “It’s my honor to win this award. I have put lots of effort in the previous year and my efforts finally paid off. I will work much more harder and keep challenging myself everyday in order to enhance my competitiveness.”
The incredible performances of the table tennis players in 2016, especially by the junior and youth players is commendable. Amongst them is Soo Wai Yam Minnie, winner of the ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals earlier this year and is ranked no.50 in Women’s Singles and 15 in Under-21 Women’s Singles in the April 2017 global rankings.
“I want to express tremendous gratitude to the HKTTA association, to my coaches, especially Li Ching for this award. Claiming the Hong Kong’s Most Potential Athlete award, I finally feel that my effort and hard work is being seen and applauded. Being an athlete was never easy, but presenting myself in the spotlight just as I am today makes all the struggles worth. Most importantly, I must thank table tennis for building and polishing myself into who I am today, into an athlete, a person whom I am proud of. I will strive my best, not only to become a better athlete, but a better person, to become a role model to all the younger players and tell them to true meaning and importance of persistence and sportsmanship.”- Soo Wai Yam Minnie
Congratulations to the players!
