Hong Kong baseball’s ambitious chiefs have challenged the city team to “cause some damage” in their quest for National Games success.
Preparations for the marquee tournament will accelerate next week when Hong Kong play in the Asian Championship in the mainland province of Fujian.
Sixth in the 2023 Asian competition, Hong Kong are targeting a one-place leap, and they have close rivals the Philippines in their crosshairs. Attention will then speedily turn to November’s Games competition in Zhongshan, after the 2021 edition delivered a salutary lesson.
“We lost all our matches, but the players back then thought it was enough to just be there,” Dave Ho, president of the Baseball Association of Hong Kong, China (BAHK), said. “In the changing room after we lost to Guangdong, they were playing music and partying.
“One of the coaches asked what they were doing, that they should have been reflecting. It was a wake-up call for them … you have to fight for your life. They realised what the National Games meant.
“We don’t want to just be competitive; we want to cause some damage.”
