{"id":581051,"date":"2026-08-11T04:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T04:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/581051\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T04:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T04:36:14","slug":"netball-a-world-cup-dream-and-the-women-driving-sports-growth-in-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/581051\/","title":{"rendered":"Netball, a World Cup dream and the women driving sport\u2019s growth in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the list of priorities for Hong Kong sport, netball sits somewhere between baseball and lawn bowls in the public\u2019s consciousness, which is why this week\u2019s battle for a place at the World Cup is passing largely unremarked.<\/p>\n

For those in the know, the Asian Championships at Kai Tak Arena is pitting the city\u2019s women against some of the region\u2019s best; reaching the finals would go a long way to boosting the sport\u2019s profile at home among those who do not know much about it.<\/p>\n

That is something Connie Wong Ar-yan, the president of Netball Hong Kong, China (NHKC), has been trying to do ever since returning to her birthplace more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo attract people to the sport, you need results at the top,\u201d Wong said.<\/p>\n

Those needle-moving outcomes have been few and far between for Hong Kong, who have finished outside the top three in every championships since their triumphant 1993 campaign.<\/p>\n

Ranked 34th in the global standings, Hong Kong last competed in a World Cup 23 years ago, when there were no qualifying demands.<\/p>\n

\"HongHong Kong beat India 81-30 on Sunday in front of 300 fans inside the Kai Tak Arena Sports Hall. Photo: Edmond So<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the list of priorities for Hong Kong sport, netball sits somewhere between baseball and lawn bowls in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[262811,262817,262813,972,1657,262818,262816,262812,3448,110649,85,207,46,262814,29727,262815,262810,2252,105,6866],"class_list":["post-581051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-and-cultural-services-department","tag-asian-championships","tag-asian-netball-championships","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-chinese-international-school","tag-connie-wong","tag-diocesan-girls-school","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-sports-institute","tag-il","tag-india","tag-israel","tag-kai-tak-arena-sports-hall","tag-leisure","tag-london-varsity-series","tag-netball-hong-kong","tag-singapore","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}