Swimming body reform on the cards

All qualified swimmers will be allowed to participate in the long course championships held by the Hong Kong China Swimming Association in November, regardless of their affiliated club's membership status. This emerged from a meeting on Wednesday held by the association, the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, as well as former SAR team swimmer Alex Fong and other representatives, after a nine-year-old swimmer from Fong's club was barred from competing due to its low ranking. Speaking after the meeting, president of the Hong Kong China Swimming Association, Ronnie Wong, said the body is looking to reform their membership and appeal mechanisms. "The swimming association will use a scoring system to determine club membership, regularly assessing how well the club is doing in different areas such as organising events, promoting swimming in district level, training swimmers and top athletes, and the number of top athletes," he said. "They will also set up a system for moving up or down in rank. Clubs that perform well can be upgraded and those that fail to meet standards may be downgraded." Wong added that suggestions put forth by Fong and New People's Party lawmaker Adrian Ho, which include increasing transparency in the three-tier membership system and revision of the composition of the swimming association's executive committee, will be discussed in a later executive committee meeting. Kenneth Fok, sports sector lawmaker and vice president of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, described the meeting as positive, adding that all parties reached a consensus to improve the sport of swimming in Hong Kong. He added that he hopes the controversy could come to an end and people can focus on supporting the SAR team in the upcoming Olympic Games.