These local teens showed excellence in many fields
Hurdler Addis Wong won a bronze medal at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.In 2018, many teenagers across the world became famous for their mind-blowing achievements: after a tragic shooting at their school, a group of students from Parkland, Florida, took action to strengthen US gun control laws; 14-year-old British actress Millie Bobby Brown was named Unicef’s youngest-ever goodwill ambassador; Swede Greta Thunberg, 15, went on strike in front of the country’s parliament to get politicians to act on the climate crisis; 19-year-old British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason performed at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding. But there were also many remarkable Hong Kong teens who made the news. Young Post has compiled profiles of our city’s leading lights to celebrate their milestones.
Addis Wong Lok-hei
Addis Wong, 17, from Cheung Sha Wan Catholic Secondary School, earned a bronze medal in the men’s 110m hurdles at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in October. Addis smashed his personal best time in Argentina to win a historic medal for the city. Hong Kong bagged a total of three medals at the Games, with fencing prodigy Kaylin Hsieh Sin-yan taking silver in individual women’s epee and mixed continental team event.
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Julian Schiavo
A 14-year-old app developer, Julian Schiavo won a scholarship to attend the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, in the US state of California, this year. There, he met Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, along with 349 other international tech talents. The Island School student used Apple technology to develop his own motion-control mobile game, Double Pong, adapted from the classic table tennis arcade game, Pong.
Michael Cheuk Ming-ho
Diocesan Boys’ School’s (DBS) Michael Cheuk set three new Hong Kong records in the 400m, 800m, and 1,500m freestyle events at the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, in August. In the Inter-school Swimming Competition in October, the 16-year-old star led DBS to their 26th consecutive overall title. Michael broke his own record in men’s 1,500m freestyle again last month at the Fina Swimming World Cup in Singapore, where he won three medals.
Amir Waheed
Pakistani student Amir Waheed, 18, won the “Star of the Stars” title in the 2017-2018 Outstanding Youth Commendation Scheme’s Secondary School Category for his outstanding academic performance and all-round development. The St Joseph’s Anglo-Chinese School graduate is now an engineering student at the University of Hong Kong.
Leo Yip Kin-ling
2018 has been an incredible year for Leo Yip, who dominated the junior pool tables in Asia and across the world. The 18-year-old lifted the Asian boys’ singles title at the 2018 Formosa Cup ACBS Asian Pool Championship in Taipei in August. Two months later, he was crowned the junior world champion at the 2018 World Junior Nine-Ball Championship in Moscow, Russia. Leo is training full-time at the Hong Kong Sports Institute and taking a part-time bridging course at the Education University of Hong Kong.
Thomas Wong Tsz-hang
Thomas Wong, from La Salle College, is the first-ever super top scorer in the HKDSE examination, achieving full marks in all nine papers, including the M2 paper, physics, chemistry, biology, and music. The 18-year-old is studying medicine at the University of Hong Kong.
Robbie Capito
Leo Yip’s teammate, Robbie Capito, finished in the top 16 at the 2018 World Nine-Ball Championships in Doha, Qatar, last week. The 17-year-old Lam Tai Fai College graduate pulled off one of the most shocking upsets in the tournament’s history, beating Albania’s world number one, Klenti Kaci.
Misha Fischer Hui-yan
Misha Fischer , 17, won the Grand Prize of Student of the Year 2017 in February this year. The Year 13 student from German Swiss International School was also Hong Kong’s top scorer in the 2017 IGCSE Biology and Computer Science examinations.
Chan Yui-lam
Fifteen-year-old para-swimming star Chan Yui-lam made a splash at the Jakarta Asian Para Games in October by clinching gold and setting a new Asian record of 1:08:56 seconds in the women’s 100m butterfly S14 event. She walked away with three medals from the Games, the other two being a silver in women’s 200m individual medley and a bronze in women’s 100m backstroke S14.
Garris Choi
West Island School’s Year 12 prodigy Garris Choi, 16, is the world’s top scorer in international maths and Hong Kong’s number one in computer science in the IGCSE examinations this year.
Oscar Coggins
Oscar Coggins, 19, lifted the Elite Men’s title at the 2018 Almaty ASTC Sprint Triathlon Asian Cup in August and finished sixth in the Junior Men’s event at the 2018 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Gold Coast in September. The Hong Kong-based star triathlete, who graduated from Canadian International School of Hong Kong and Millfield School in England, is taking a gap year as he hopes to qualify to represent Hong Kong at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.