Ice hockey body fights back

James Lee

The Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association rejected the SAR's top sports body's allegations it was "evasive" and presented the national anthem in an undignified manner during a tournament in Sarajevo in February.

The Sports Federation and Olympic Committee received a written investigation report and improvement plan on the incident last night - the third report the association had submitted - after the wrong music was played at the event rather than the national anthem.

That response came a month after the SF&OC - coordinator of all funded sports associations in the SAR - suspended the ice hockey association's membership, threatened to pull its funding, and demanded a report on the anthem blunder and the running of the association.

In a strong statement that jarred with its first two reports to the SF&OC, the HKIHA denied allegations, though conceded team leader Annie Kwan Yuen-yee had failed to check the anthem, which led to the playing of a song linked to the 2019 protests rather than the March of the Volunteers at the Ice Hockey World Championship on February 28 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The first paragraph of the statement read that the association "must admit and confess" that Kwan's attempts to verify the national anthem were "not sufficient" no matter how busy Kwan might have been.

The word "admit" appears in the report three times and "confess" twice.

The statement then went on to list out a timeline of Kwan's unsuccessful attempts to verify the anthem with organizers in Sarajevo, including an account of her attempts to approach chief of competition Mirzet Hodzic, who dismissed her concerns initially, saying "he already had a copy of the national anthem in his possession."

Kwan tried repeatedly to speak to Hodzic to verify the correct anthem would be played but ultimately failed as she was busy with injury reports, ran into communication errors with local sports officials and was at times simply unable to locate him.

The statement repeatedly noted four times that Kwan was "busily engaged" throughout the competition due to manpower shortages within the association.

As a result of the limited resources that could be deployed by the HKIHA, it said, no medical officer or assistant coach was backing up Kwan.

Halfway through the 11-page report the association rejected the SF&OC allegation that the HKIHA had failed to present the national anthem in a dignified manner, "the reason being that 'insufficient attempts in procuring for verification of the national anthem' is entirely not equivalent to 'failure in handling and presenting the national anthem in a dignified manner.'"

Also in the allegations "the HKIHA has all along abided [with] the spirit of proper respect to the national anthem as well as the national flag of our country."

On the SF&OC's allegation that its attempt to request discussions with the association were not met with a positive response, the association said there was "no refusal to any request."

And on the allegation no details requested by the SF&OC were provided the association went on to direct the committee's attention to the HKIHA's last two reports dated March 10 and 20 and an e-mail dated March 1, and it was not asked to provide supplementary details.

So the "HKIHA must say that it is neither administratively proper nor fair" to allege the association failed on providing requested information.

The association also denied it had ever been "unwilling and evasive" in responses to the committee, and it "never failed to communicate and cooperate."

Also, it has "never placed insufficient importance on the misplaying of the national anthem" or "the dignity of the country."

Yesterday's submission came less than a month after the women's ice hockey team bagged a historic gold in an international competition in Romania and then called on the SAR administration to reconsider pulling funding from the association.

cjames.lee@singtaonewscorp.com