Breakthrough Rugby Update
The last few weeks have seen lots of activity for Breakthrough.
The big news I suppose was that Breakthrough were one of the charities supported by Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Arnold Classic Asia sports festival. Not only did we receive a $50,000 donation but we got some great publicity. At the opening lunch, one of the highlights was breakthrough boy Peter Yip in Police uniform telling everyone how sport had changed his life.
The Chief Secretary, Carrie Lam, was in the audience and was impressed enough to spend 10 minutes talking to Glen O’Neil our new Chairman about Breakthrough.
The outward bound course is ongoing as I write and will finish tomorrow. We had 6 boys and girls from the rugby side in a group of 24 Breakthrough kids taking part.
On the rugby side we are now gearing up for the new season. The summer course ended last week and Gunny presented certificates to the 55 kids who completed the course. We are now hoping that a few of them carry on and play for us next season. We and Tin Siu Wai are struggling with numbers at U14 so we are hoping that the younger kids in particular do stay on. Attached is a picture from last Friday. Numbers are quite good at training on a Wednesday at the U19 and U16 levels so that is good. To kick off the season we have a touch tournament at the Police College on 17 September from 1 to 5pm and the Union fixtures start from 25 September.
We recently had 9 breakthrough lads in the Philippines for some matches with the Warriors against the Philippines U19 team. We won the Transcom Cup that was up for grabs and attach are a couple of pictures.
The five lads and Ivan, who went to UK for the Tony Ho rugby camp had a great time and learnt a lot. Thanks to arrangements and support from Kowloon RFC, one of them Lawrence Chan is returning to the school for the next two terms to, we hope, improve both his studies and his rugby. We are hoping to finalise the visa this week and he will be off to start his new adventure in early September. If all goes well Kowloon and Breakthrough are hoping to make this an annual arrangement for one lucky Breakthrough lad.
Lastly on 8 October Rex Tso is fighting at the HK Convention Centre in his next professional fight on his way to a world championship we hope. But more exciting is that Breakthrough’s very own Sures will be fighting on the undercard. Why he is not the main event I don’t understand!! The boxing starts at 7pm and there are 8 fights in all. He is training very hard indeed for this one and I’m sure he will provide us with plenty to shout about. If you fancy watching Sures in action tickets are available at below link.