VICTOR Hong Kong Open started its first round action at the Coliseum yesterday (Sep 13th) with matches featuring Hong Kong players in the evening session. The Hong Kong Badminton Association invited 30 schools with about 1,200 students and the Audio-description Service volunteer team to join members of the Hong Kong Blind Union to support the home team through a new kind of experience of watching international sporting competitions.
HKBA offered free admission to students from 30 secondary and primary schools.
Students and teachers delighted to have opportunity of watching competition.
VICTOR Hong Kong Open recorded a full house on the second day of competition which featured top players from all over the world for the two sessions from morning to evening. The world class tournament provides not only exciting competition to the students but also a group of blind people through the Sports Programme with Audio-description Service.
Ping Fai is one of the members of the service since its launch. He has listened to commentary of various competitions through these volunteers but this was the first time he came down to the stadium to ‘experience’ a badminton competition. “It’s very exciting,” said Ping Fai. “The most impressive one was the mixed doubles match between two Hong Kong pairs of Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet and Lee Chun Hei/Ng Tsz Yau.”
Through the lively commentary, he felt nervous when the Tang/Tse pair, whom he supported, was caught from behind by the opponents but was delighted to see them finally win in the deciding game. Ping Fai thanked the volunteers for their fluent and vivid commentary, leaving him the impression of watching the game live.
Ping Fai and volunteer Ah Chung
Sitting next to Ping Fai is Ah Chung, one of the volunteers who has worked for the service since its launch. Like all other volunteers, Chung has received professional training before providing the service. When asked if he was happy with the commentary, Ping Fai said not only Ah Chung but also other volunteers were all able to provide fluent description of the matches with great details.
Li Tak Nang, adviser of the service, said video description commentary had been very popular in other parts of the world, providing ear phones to blind people to ‘listen’ to live matches as they were not able to watch. The service in Hong Kong has started for three years, providing professional training to develop volunteers so that more blind people can experience sporting events and promote disability inclusion. They have involved in many major sporting events in Hong Kong before and this is the first time they work with the badminton Hong Kong Open.
More Information：
VICTOR Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships 2023 part of the HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500
