Hong Kong snooker and tennis bodies spared funding axe, elite status rules change
Under threat sports spared from loss of financial support after failing to meet Tier A criteria, city’s elite athletes get funding boost
Hong Kong tennis and snooker chiefs were celebrating a notable financial reprieve on Monday, after the city’s sports minister said they could keep their elite status.
Speaking after a sports commission meeting, the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui, revealed the previous criteria for gaining Tier A standing had been reviewed, and the “good recent performances” of local tennis players noted.
Previously, a sport needed to have been represented in three of the past four or next two Olympics or Asian Games to qualify for elite funding. Billiard sports, which encompasses snooker and pool, has not been in the latter since 2010, although it will return for the 2030 edition in Doha.
Law acknowledged that not being in the Asian Games “posed difficulties for billiard sports”, and said because that was outside the control of sports associations officials had “adjusted the scheme”.
Now, a sport must have featured at three Olympics or Asian Games since 1997, when the city’s athletes began competing under the Hong Kong, China banner.
In the case of tennis, Law said while athletes in other sports could previously gain elite status through world championship performances, that option was not available for the racquet sport.