Netball, a World Cup dream and the women driving sport’s growth in Hong Kong

In the list of priorities for Hong Kong sport, netball sits somewhere between baseball and lawn bowls in the public’s consciousness, which is why this week’s battle for a place at the World Cup is passing largely unremarked. For those in the know, the Asian Championships at Kai Tak Arena is pitting the city’s women against some of the region’s best; reaching the finals would go a long way to boosting the sport’s profile at home among those who do not know much about it. That is something Connie Wong Ar-yan, the president of Netball Hong Kong, China (NHKC), has been trying to do ever since returning to her birthplace more than a decade ago. “To attract people to the sport, you need results at the top,” Wong said. Those needle-moving outcomes have been few and far between for Hong Kong, who have finished outside the top three in every championships since their triumphant 1993 campaign. Ranked 34th in the global standings, Hong Kong last competed in a World Cup 23 years ago, when there were no qualifying demands. Still, a side that boasts Zenia Wong, 23, and 29-year-old Gessy Li Ga-wing, flagbearers for the “structured pathway” created by Connie Wong, harbour very realistic ambitions of reaching the Australian finals next year. “If we are successful here, and people come to watch, and know what netball is, that’s what this tournament is about,” Connie Wong said. “It is to build a netball brand.” Fewer than 1,000 people in Hong Kong were playing netball when Wong returned to the city from Australia in 2009. She quickly established a Junior Netball League that has grown from 12 teams at its inception to more than 100 today. Alongside a women’s netball pyramid that features more than 60 sides in seven leagues, including a six-team Premier Division, participation numbers today are closer to 2,000. “Without the grass roots there is no pathway or progression,” Wong, 49, said. “Back in Australia, Saturday netball was the thing, so we set that up here. “We were competing against rugby, hockey and other sports. When there was a clash, we moved times, so we were catering for different people and trying to be inclusive.” Wong also oversaw the introduction of under-14, under-16 and under-21 Hong Kong teams, alongside a development squad that feeds into the seniors, who clobbered India 81-30 on Sunday in front of 300 fans inside the Kai Tak Arena Sports Hall. Four hundred showed up for Saturday’s opening day, when Hong Kong drew 57-57 with world No 29 opponents Sri Lanka. “Having an event of this size shows youngsters that, like Gessy and Zenia, they could be on court for Hong Kong one day, having followed the pathway,” said Wong, a former player who doubles as the team’s “game manager”. Zenia Wong began playing at around 12 years old after moving to Chinese International School, then “never stopped”. “Netball wasn’t huge, but we had a team and the collective element really drew me in,” Wong said. The sport is prevalent in English Schools Foundation institutions and international schools, but included on the PE curriculums of only around 20 local primary and secondary schools. Li, who started netball at 12, and made her debut for Hong Kong in 2017, was a pupil at Diocesan Girls’ School. “It was one of the more unpopular sports, but my mum used to play and said I should try, and I fell in love with it,” Li said. “One of the beauties of netball, where it’s a much smaller community, was that our team was always really tight.” Also director of athletics at The ISF Academy, Connie Wong said: “We’re targeting the local schools, because those students will probably stay in Hong Kong to study and work. They can continue through the pathways to the national team. “It’s difficult if no teacher in those schools knows about netball. We’re bringing them to these events to help them learn about it, and the LCSD [the government’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department] has affordable programmes in the schools.” Zenia Wong spent the “most mentally intensive” years of her young life studying law at University College London from 2021 to 2023. Managing the “physicality and intensity” of netball in the London Varsity Series “really challenged me to become a better player”. “I was shorter [than most opponents], so I had to work on speed and vision, and be more comfortable with contact,” she said. Although Hong Kong had a one-week June camp in Perth, where Connie Wong moved aged eight and spent around 24 years, they usually train together once a week, while players follow individual programmes over the other six days. Those in the 12-strong Asian Championships squad all have full-time jobs, with Li in an office from 9am to 6pm every day, and Zenia Wong poised to begin a law training contract. Li acknowledged that juggling work and sport was “tough” and that “sometimes on a Friday night you’re dragging your body”. “But everybody’s doing the same, there’s so much sacrifice,” she said. “We treasure the time we have together to train. We’re disciplined because we’re so hungry for this.” Connie Wong said: “When I first came back to Hong Kong, we tried to instil an elite team training programme, but the players couldn’t do it because of work. For the younger ones, there was so much academic pressure that they couldn’t commit.” Six leading performers, including Li and Zenia Wong, receive sports aid grants from the Hong Kong Sports Institute, which also provides financial aid to NHKC for coaching courses. Asia’s best team, world No 23-ranked Singapore, who beat Sri Lanka 62-51 on Sunday, includes netball in the school curriculum, while it is part of the city state’s sports institute. “They have a lot of full-time coaches, they’re investing a lot of money, and they have a strong participation base,” Connie Wong said. Although she acknowledged that “facilities, resources and manpower” were all comparatively limiting factors for Hong Kong, Wong said that without existing government support “we wouldn’t be able to run any of these programmes”, nor stage the Asian Championships for the first time in 33 years. Netball is determinedly fighting for Olympic inclusion from 2032. “We feel a bit ripped off not being in the Olympics,” Connie Wong said. “We see sports like skateboarding, and 3v3 basketball, but there are so many great athletes playing netball. “It would give the sport more recognition in Hong Kong, improve our HKSI access and funding, and get people asking how they could support the national association.” More immediately, Hong Kong must reach Saturday’s Asian final to book their World Cup return. “It would bring so much more attention to the sport,” Zenia Wong said. “Hong Kong people are very passionate about their teams, and when one is successful they really back them.”

Netball, a World Cup dream and the women driving sport’s growth in Hong Kong

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Connie Wong has spent more than a decade raising the game’s profile in her home city. This week’s Asian Championships at Kai Tak will help

Connie Wong has spent more than a decade raising the game’s profile in her home city. This week’s Asian Championships at Kai Tak will help