In recognition of their achievements in local and international sports, 13 received Outstanding Junior Athlete Awards (OJAA) at the Hong Kong Sports Institute last Thursday
Snooker star Cheung Ka-wai won gold at the Hong Kong Under-21 Snooker Open Championship 2016. In recognition of their achievements in local and international sports, 13 young men and women received Outstanding Junior Athlete Awards (OJAA) at the Hong Kong Sports Institute last Thursday. The awards have been sponsored by the Sports for Hope Foundation since 2012, with each OJAA recipient receiving a HK$2,500 cash prize, a HK$2,500 sports voucher, and a certificate.
Snooker star Cheung Ka-wai, 16, was also awarded the Most Outstanding Junior Athlete of the Year. The award is given to an athlete who has won a medal at a competition given a five-point rating under the Elite Vote Scoring Table. He won the Hong Kong Under-21 Snooker Open Championship 2016 (Event One) on January 31 at World Snooker Club 147, in Sheung Wan.
Ka-wai is competing at the 17th ACBS Asian U21 Snooker Championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which ends today. He’s also set his sights on the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.
Another annual award, the Most Promising Junior Athlete, went to squash player Choi Uen-shan, who won the OJAA three times or more in 2015. She won a gold medal at the Hong Kong Junior U19 Open and a silver at the 22nd Asian Junior Individual Championships in Tehran, Iran, in August last year.
Uen-shan told Young Post the award showed her efforts had paid off. “I try to prepare well for every competition,” she said. “It was especially tough at the 22nd Asian Junior Individual Championships as the climate in Iran is totally different from Hong Kong. It was difficult to play in such unusually hot weather. The squash centres in Iran were not air-conditioned. It took a lot of time to get used to such an environment, although I continued to play my best squash against my opponents.”
The 20-year-old said the Asian Junior Individual Championships in Iran was her last time to participate in the junior squash competition.