Corporate News

Club's Junior Equestrian Team member is HK's first national champion

11 September 2009

 

Outjumping more than 20 competitors from different provinces and cities in China, 18-year-old Jacqueline Lai won a gold medal in the 2009 National Showjumping Championship last weekend to become Hong Kong's first national champion rider.

Organised by the Chinese Equestrian Association, the Showjumping Championships were held in Beijing from 4 to 6 September.  Lai, a member of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Junior Equestrian Team, was the SAR's only entrant in the championship, contesting an individual jumping event over fences of 1.4m high. She finished with two clear rounds, beating 25 other riders from such strong teams as Guangdong, Shanghai and Xinjiang,

Lai is in good form after finishing training in Germany in August.  She will continue to train in Beijing in the coming weeks, in preparation for the 11th National Games to be held in Jinan, Shandong Province, in October.  There she will team up with Samantha Lam, Patrick Lam and Kenneth Cheng, all of whom represented Hong Kong in the equestrian events of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.  The four riders will form a Hong Kong team bidding for both team and individual medals in the Jumping events of the National Games.

At the end of 2008, the Club committed further funding to sponsor the Hong Kong Jockey Club Equestrian Team.  Its current members are Samantha Lam, Patrick Lam, Kenneth Cheng and Gaelle Tong.  The Club's funding also covers the establishment of a new HKJC Junior Equestrian Team, which is recruiting talented local young riders aged 12 to 18 and offering them professional equestrian training.  These initiatives are aimed at promoting equestrian sport in Hong Kong and carrying forward the Olympic legacy.

HKJC Junior Equestrian Team member Jacqueline Lai has become the National Equestrian Jumping Champion at the age of just 18.
Photo:
HKJC Junior Equestrian Team member Jacqueline Lai has become the National Equestrian Jumping Champion at the age of just 18.


 

 

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