New-look "Run with your Heart" welcomes in momentous Olympic year

31 December 2007

Seven teams from The Hong Kong Jockey Club are ending 2007 on a high note this evening (31 December) by joining the annual "Run with your Heart" charity event at the PopTV Arena on the West Kowloon Reclamation site.  The Club is the title sponsor of this year's "Run with your Heart", which carries the theme "Let's get ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics".

Exactly 2,008 runners are participating in this year's four-hour relay race, which will end on the stroke of midnight when all competitors will join a toast to welcome in the new year and wish Beijing good luck in hosting the 2008 Olympic Games !V along with Hong Kong, which will be staging the Olympic equestrian events.

Besides entering seven teams of its own in the contest, the Club has set up a mini-equestrian exhibition at the venue. Visitors can pose for photos with the Club's Equestrian Ambassador and the five Fu Wa Olympic mascots, see models of the equestrian venues, and learn more about equestrian sports and riding gear. The Club has also contributed 400 backpacks as souvenirs.

The seven Club teams, comprising 66 people in total, included both regular employee volunteers and young students of the Apprentice Jockeys' School. 

Earlier this evening, the Club's Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges got fully into the spirit of the occasion by running the first few laps himself, after joining other officiating guests at the "Run with your Heart 2007" opening ceremony.  "It is indeed an honour for the Club to take on the role of title sponsor of 'Run with your Heart' this year.  We as a Club have always been pleased to support this event because it has done a lot over the years to raise funds for the needy and to promote the health benefits of sport," he said.

Noting that "Run with your Heart" stood for teamwork and sport which were also the values of the Club, Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges said that "Run with your Heart" had a heart for the community and Hong Kong.  "The Club also has a heart for Hong Kong; we are an integral part of it and we care for it," he emphasised.  "That's the reason why, for example, we have supported the Olympic equestrian events by committing over HK$1 billion to bring them here, so as to showcase Hong Kong's can-do attitude and world class hospitality."

The Club has long been committed to supporting sports development in Hong Kong and has funded the building of many well known local sports venues over the years including the Hong Kong Sports Institute, Hong Kong Stadium, Kowloon Park sports complex and Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course, as well as a number of the city's public swimming pools.  The Club has 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.