The main events of the 12th National Games for Persons with Disabilities and the 9th National Special Olympic Games opened on Tuesday, with Hong Kong’s para paddlers, fencers, and boccia players climbing the rankings, and their eyes firmly fixed on podium finishes.
The twin events are jointly hosted by the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, alongside Guangdong province, following the pioneering co-hosting model precedent set by last month’s 15th National Games.
Hong Kong will stage boccia, wheelchair fencing, para table tennis (TT11), and Special Olympics table tennis, while Macao has been entrusted with badminton for both Games.
Over the eight days from Dec 8 to 15, 7,824 athletes representing 34 delegations throughout the country will pursue glory in 1,876 events in 46 sports, which include 131 events in 11 mass-participation sports, and 599 events across nine Special Olympics disciplines.
Hong Kong sent an athlete delegation exceeding 280, with gold medal hopes high in the XD14-class mixed doubles for para table tennis duo Wong Hon-lam, who has a permanent hip injury, and Winnie Pang Wing-ka, whose right-side mobility is affected by congenital cerebral palsy.
Though this marks their debut at the National Games, the pair boasts a proven pedigree, having pocketed a gold medal at the ITTF Asian Para Championships 2025 this October.
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The XD14 mixed doubles final kicked off at 9:30 am, Tuesday, where Wong and Pang took on a Jiangsu pairing for the event’s title.
Also on Tuesday, Pang will band with Lo Ka-hei in the TT6-class women’s doubles final, facing a pair from Chongqing in a bid for the gold medal.
Para table tennis events are split between the National Games for Persons with Disabilities held in Guangdong — covering physical, intellectual, hearing, and visual impairments — and the parallel Special Olympics for intellectual disabilities, in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s Ma On Shan Sports Centre saw the city’s wheelchair fencer stars take center stage, with team and individual world No 2 Alison Yu Chui-yee competing in the women’s foil (A) individual event, and Paris 2024 Paralympian Tong Nga-ting and Chung Yuen-ping in the women’s foil (B) individual, alongside representatives in men’s saber matches.
Meanwhile, across the border in Guangzhou, Hong Kong’s veteran athlete, Yam Kwok-fan — the previous Games’ T36 200-meter bronze medalist — will contest the women’s T36 100-meter final, hoping to add a new medal to her collection.
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Separately, returning as medal heavyweights from the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, Hong Kong’s boccia teams, and swimmer Wong Hon-yin, a bronze medalist at Hangzhou Asian Para Games, will kick off their bids in various individual classes.
