ENG-2017 — Page 377

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Recreation, Sport, Culture and the Arts

With the Indonesia 2018 Asian Para Games and qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games just round the corner, Hong Kong's athletes are working hard for a challenging year ahead as the association continues to move forward the Paralympic movement.

Hong Kong Sports Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability

The Hong Kong Sports Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability develops, promotes and organises sporting activities to help people with intellectual disability develop their potential and cultivate positive attitudes through sport, and to facilitate their integration into the community. These activities include training sessions and competitions. The association's training programme caters for all levels of ability.

Intellectually disabled athletes won 142 medals during the year, comprising 51 golds, 53 silvers and 38 bronzes. They made the most of the many international competitions they took part in to sharpen their skills and bring glory to Hong Kong. Highlights included one silver and one bronze at the Sheffield 2017 World Para Swimming World Series - British Para Swimming International Meet; one gold at the 2017 Inas Athletics Championships in Bangkok, Thailand; two silvers at the 2017 PTT World Team Championships in Bratislava, Slovak Republic; two golds and one bronze at the 4th Taichung Table Tennis Open for the Disabled 2017 in Taiwan; one silver at the World Para Athletics Junior Championships 2017 in Nottwil, Switzerland; one gold, one silver and two bronzes at the 2017 ITTF PTT Asian Championships in Beijing; 10 golds, nine silvers and six bronzes at the Inas World Table Tennis Championships 2017 in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic; and five golds, eight silvers and three bronzes at the Dubai 2017 Asian Youth. Para Games in the United Arab Emirates.

Hong Kong athletes also achieved excellent results at these Special Olympics meets: the World Winter Games in Austria; Macao Golf Masters in China; Kim Kallstrom Trophy in Gothenburg, Sweden; Table Tennis Competition and Athletics Competition in Macao; East Asia Unified Basketball Competition in Fuzhou; and Macao Inter-city Competition Unified Bocce Competition.

Hong Kong Jockey Club

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The Hong Kong Jockey Club is a world-class racing club that acts continuously for the betterment of society. Founded in 1884 as a membership club to promote racing and riding, today it operates an integrated business model of racing and racecourse entertainment, a membership club, responsible sports wagering and lottery, and charities and community contribution. This enables the club to generate economic and social value to further community development.

In 2016-17, the club returned 79.1 per cent of its wagering and lottery revenue to Hong Kong, paying $21.7 billion in tax to government and donating $4.1 billion to 215 charity and community projects. Together with a special donation of $3.5 billion to build the Hong Kong Palace Museum, total donations were $7.6 billion. The club is the territory's largest single taxpayer, contributing 7.5 per cent of all taxes collected by the Inland Revenue Department in 2016-17. It is also one of the world's top 10 charity donors.

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