The Hong Kong men’s and women’s squads have their sights set on the Asian Games as they prepare to defend their Melrose Claymore titles at the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens in April.
Last year the home teams swept the Melrose Claymore competitions, capping a sensational debut for the Hong Kong Sevens at Kai Tak Stadium.
They will hope for more of the same when the competition returns to Kai Tak on April 17-19.
"This is going to be a huge preparation for us for the Asian Games,” said squad co-captain James Christie.
"China, Japan and South Korea are all capable of winning Asian Games gold, so every match and tournament we play against them this year will help us prepare.”
China and Japan are returning to challenge the hosts, setting up a tantalizing preview of the 20th Asian Games in Nagoya in September.
Coach Jevon Groves said “it’s really good to have something like the Melrose Claymore and two good competitors” to help Hong Kong focus after they fell short in the Challenger series.
After an extra-time loss to Canada eliminated Hong Kong from advancing to SVNS 2 in Kenya, Christie said the squad is excited to return to Kai Tak, where they added National Games gold to the Melrose Claymore haul last year.
"Our results there show how the team feels about playing at Kai Tak in front of our home crowd,” he said. “When we are at Kai Tak it is like the crowd is on the pitch with us ... we want to make them proud.”
The women’s tournament will welcome its first non-regional competition with Denmark joining Hong Kong and Thailand in the fray.
"We don’t know much about Denmark, but it’s always exciting to play someone new,” said squad co-captain Natasha Olson Thorne. “We are very familiar with Thailand, having played them many times, but we just have to keep the focus on ourselves and play our game.”
