ENG-1989 — Page 370

RECREATION AND THE ARTS

overnight accommodation and recreational facilities, indoors and outdoors, for campers. Last year, these camps were used by over 500 000 people, mainly the younger age groups. Sports facilities such as swimming pools, multi-purpose games halls and stadia of various sizes abound although they are more evenly provided in the New Towns than the old urban areas where there is little land for such development.

Hong Kong international sports successes were highlighted at the 9th Commonwealth Table-Tennis Championships in Cardiff, in which Miss Chai Po-wah won the gold medal for the Women's Singles, defeating fellow team-mate Miss Chan Tan-lui who clinched the silver medal. The two then joined forces to win the Women's Doubles and the Women's Team event. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong men helped to win the gold and bronze medals in the Mixed Doubles as well as taking the bronze medal in the Men's Team event and Men's Singles.

This achievement heralded the opening of a new era in sports development in Hong Kong. In April, 1989 the Governor-in-Council approved the establishment of a statutory body, to be known as the Hong Kong Sports Development Board to promote and develop sports and physical recreation in Hong Kong, succeeding the Council for Recreation and Sport which has been the advisory body to the government in this area since 1974. Among other things, the council advised on the disbursement of government funds to sports associations, amounting to over $11 million in 1989, including support towards Hong Kong's participation in the 1990 Commonwealth Games. The council administered other funds such as the Sir David Trench Fund for Recreation and the Sports Aid Foundation. With the help of the latter fund, which was set up with a $15 million grant from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, two promising young Hong Kong athletes are currently studying sports-related subjects overseas. On November 1, 1989, a Provisional Hong Kong Sports Development Board was established to take over the work of the Council for Recreation and Sport. The statutory board will come into being on April 1, 1990.

Outward Bound School

The Hong Kong Outward Bound School is a private registered charity of a world-wide network of such schools, providing year-round land and sea-based stress-challenge personal development programmes.

In recent years there has been a growing recognition by corporations that the training offered by the school is an effective team-building and training strategy for older adults, resulting in a marked increase in the demand for ‘adult challenge' and 'contract courses'.

The training is held on the school's training ship, the brigantine Ji Fung (Spirit of Resolution), and from the residential base in Tai Mong Tsai, Sai Kung.

The purpose of each course is to improve the trainees' self-awareness, self-confidence, resourcefulness, leadership and communication skills. Trainees include employees of major corporations and smaller businesses, as well as students and young people, including the handicapped and socially deprived.

In 1989 the school experienced an active, productive and safe year, operating all its courses almost at capacity. On average there were 11 courses each month with about 108 students in residence at any one time.

A milestone in the year was the conducting of two international courses which took the Ji Fung down to the Kinarut Outward Bound School in Sabah and back. Sixty trainees representing 11 nationalities visited three countries, completed a 1 300-mile voyage across the South China Sea, and gained valuable international exposure.

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