ENG-2016 — Page 375

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Recreation, Sport, Culture and the Arts

national squad. More than 315,400 people attended the 67 events at the stadium in 2016, including the Asian Football Confederation Cup, East Asian Football Federation E-1 Football Championship 2017 Round 2 and three international friendly matches Hong Kong held with FC Ryukyu, Cambodia and Singapore.

Water Sports Centres and Holiday Camps

The LCSD manages five water sports centres: Chong Hing, Tai Mei Tuk, The Jockey Club Wong Shek, St Stephen's Beach and Stanley Main Beach. It also runs four holiday camps, the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village, Sai Kung Outdoor Recreation Centre, Tso Kung Tam Outdoor Recreation Centre and Lei Yue Mun Park. In 2016, about 122,000 people took part in events at the water sports centres and 510,000 visited or stayed at the holiday camps.

Other Recreation and Sports Venues

The department manages 97 sports centres, 43 swimming pool complexes, 256 tennis courts, 294 squash courts, 25 sports grounds, four golf-driving ranges and two public riding schools. Works for eight other major projects are under way.

Beaches and Swimming Pools

Swimming is one of Hong Kong's most popular summer pastimes. The department manages 41 gazetted public beaches and 43 public swimming pool complexes. In 2016, some 13.7 million people used the public beaches and 13.8 million visited public swimming pools.

Recreation and Sports Organisations

Hong Kong Sports Institute Limited

The sports institute seeks to provide an environment in which sports talent can be identified, nurtured and developed. Besides access to quality sports facilities, the support given to athletes includes coaching and training, sports science and sports medicine, and education and employment training. Its Elite Training Programme renders dedicated support to athletes in 17 Tier A sports: athletics, badminton, billiard sports, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, karatedo, rowing, rugby sevens, sailing, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, tenpin bowling, windsurfing and wushu. The institute also supports athletes in 13 Tier B sports: dance sports, dragon boat, equestrian, golf, judo, kart, lawn bowls, mountaineering, orienteering, roller sports, skating, taekwondo and triathlon. Outstanding athletes whose sports may fall outside these two tiers are covered under an Individual Athletes Support Scheme and a Disabled Sports Elite Training Programme.

The institute's state-of-the-art facilities enable the training of high-performance athletes, while its $7 billion Elite Athletes Development Fund offers a sustainable long-term source of financial support for the institute's operation.

Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China

The Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China is recognised as a National Olympic Committee by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is a member of the IOC, the Olympic Council of Asia, the Association of National Olympic Committee and the East Asian Olympic Committee. The federation is responsible for organising Hong Kong's participation in

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