National Games: the Hong Kong records that could be broken at the athletics, swimming
Swimmer Adam Mak among those likely to rewrite the city’s record books, along with Olympian Siobhan Haughey and runner Kamran Khan
As co-hosts with Guangdong and Macau, Hong Kong’s athletes were exempt from needing to qualify for the National Games, resulting in the city sending its largest-ever delegation of more than 600 competitors.
Amid heightened competition at the multi-sport event, and with the potential for records to tumble on an almost hourly basis, here are the Hong Kong marks that could fall in swimming and athletics over the next two weeks.
Swimming
Among the 31 men and women who make up the city’s swim team, 19-year-old Adam Mak Sai-ting is among the favourites to rewrite the city’s record books, having already done so twice over the summer at the World University Games in Germany.
With three personal bests and two national records in just five days in Rhine-Ruhr in July, Mak – the city’s best swimmer in the men’s 50m and 200m breaststroke – could complete his hat-trick by taking the 100m breaststroke title from Nicholas Cheung Chi-kit, whose time of 1:00.50 at the same Universiade was just 0.07 seconds faster than Mak.
With both putting their names forward in all three breaststroke events, the pair could cross paths with China’s record holder Qin Haiyang, who also holds the world record in the 200m event, at some point at the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre.
Veteran swimmer Ian Ho Yentou also showed a glimpse of his recent form by renewing the city’s 50m free record to 21.82 at the World Championships in Singapore in August.