New People's Party lawmaker Adrian Ho on Thursday called on the authorities to allow all clubs under the Hong Kong China Swimming Association to be allowed to use lanes in public pools. Under the association's three-tiered membership system, only clubs in the top two tiers are allowed to apply to use lanes, while the "competition clubs" from the lowest tier are excluded. At a press briefing, Ho called on the authorities to allocate more resources to the training of swimmers with potential, adding that the government should designate specific hours at selected pools for swimming clubs. "Possibly, (there will be) restrictions on hours as well as swimming lanes too. That still needs to be refined. But there will be a limitation on the amount of bids that people can put out, as well as that, there will be lanes reserved for competition clubs, which were not previously eligible for applying for any of such entering the lottery pool," he said. Ho also urged the two bodies responsible for issuing swimming coach licences to incorporate English materials in their programmes. People hoping to become licensed swimming coaches must undergo courses and examinations conducted by either the Hong Kong Swimming Teachers' Association or the Hong Kong China Swimming Association. However, neither of these associations offer English materials for non-Chinese speakers. "There's a huge demand for English speakers to be able to apply for coaching licences. While this being a preliminary discussion, the swimming association has told me that this problem has been raised at their executive level for a period of time. They just haven't come around to figuring out how to do it," Ho said.
