Corporate News

New-look "Run with your Heart 2007" to welcome in momentous Olympic year

16 October 2007

The Hong Kong Jockey Club is to be the title sponsor of this year's "Run with your Heart" relay race on the evening of 31 December, an event that will welcome in a momentous New Year with the theme "Let's get ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics".

Organised by the Hong Kong Elite Athletes Association, "Run with your Heart" has become a growingly popular end-of-year sporting event since 1998, attracting up to 3,000 runners and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the needy.

Previously it has been run over 12 hours, but this year's event on 31 December will be limited to four hours and exactly 2,008 runners will participate in relay teams of 12.  The race will end on the stroke of midnight when all competitors will join a toast to welcome in 2008 and wish Beijing good luck in hosting the 2008 Olympic Games -as well as Hong Kong, which will stage the Olympic equestrian events.

At a press conference today (16 October) to announce the 2007 format, the Club's Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said "Run with your Heart" was an event that the Club was always pleased to support, having long been committed to sports development in Hong Kong.  "Over the past 50 years, the total value of the Club's contributions to sports-related projects has exceeded HK$4 billion, an average of more than HK$80 million a year," he noted.

Citing the Hong Kong Sports Institute, Hong Kong Stadium, Kowloon Park sports complex, Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course and many of the city's public swimming pools as examples of major sports facilities built wholly or partly with Club contributions, Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges said the Club had recently donated some HK$88 million to The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to establish and operate a joint Sports Medicine and Health Sciences Centre for three years.

"Perhaps most important of all, we have committed well over HK$800 million to provide the venues that will enable the equestrian events of the Beijing 2008 Olympics to be held in Hong Kong, making it possible for Hong Kong people to share in the pride and excitement of their nation's first Olympics," he said.

"Run with your Heart 2007 will offer a wonderful opportunity to promote the Olympic spirit to the people of Hong Kong, so there is more good reason that ever to give this event our full support.  That is why we have agreed to become the title sponsor."

Joining Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges at today's event were The Hon Timothy Fok, GBS, JP, President of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, and Mr Victor Hui, MBE, SBS, JP, Honorary President of Hong Kong Elites Athletes Association.  To symbolise "running with the heart", each was presented with a pair of running shoes and large red heart cushion.

"The Hong Kong Jockey Club Run with your Heart 2007" event on 31 December will also have a new venue, the PopTV Arena on the West Kowloon Reclamation site, and will include a public carnival featuring 28 sponsored game booths and stalls  - one for each of the 28 official Olympic sports.  The carnival will be open all day, while the relay race will start at 8:00 pm  - matching the starting time of the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony in Beijing on 8 August 2008.


Photo 1:
The Club's Chief Executive Officer Mr Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges spoke in the press conference of "The Hong Kong Jockey Club Run with your Heart 2007"


Photo 2:
Mr Victor Hui, Honorary President of Hong Kong Elites Athletes Association delivered a speech in the press conference.


Photo 3:
Mr Timothy Fok, President of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China wished "The Hong Kong Jockey Club Run with your Heart 2007" a success.


Photo 4:
(From left to right) President of Organising Committee of Run With Your Heart Ms Malina Ngai, The Hong Kong Jockey Club's Chief Executive Officer Mr Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, President of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China Mr Timothy Fok, and Honorary President of Hong Kong Elites Athletes Association Mr Victor Hui put on a pair of running shoes and hold a big red heart to symbolise "running with the heart".


Photo 5:
Two elite athletes, badminton player Yip Pui-yin (right) and table tennis player Chiu Chung-hei (left) unveiled the press conference of "The Hong Kong Jockey Club Run with your Heart 2007".


Photo 6:
Photo 6, 7: Group photo of the guests attending the press conference.


Photo 7

 

 

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