The 2025 National Games, co-hosted by Guangdong province and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, offered Hong Kong a rare opportunity: to play on home soil. For a group that had spent years training in the shadows, it felt like a calling.

"After discussing with the players, we all agreed — if we want to beat professional teams, we must first become as professional as possible ourselves," Hui said.

So the team made an unprecedented decision in Hong Kong handball history: to fully commit to the Games. Nearly the entire squad stepped away from their jobs to train full-time.

They studied match videos frame by frame, managed their diets like professionals and followed a rigorous training schedule matching that of national-level teams — all despite their limited resources.

Hong Kong's path at the 2025 Games became a storybook run: defeating Macao and Shanghai in the group stage, stunning Guangdong in the quarterfinals, and pushing Anhui to the final minutes in a narrow three-goal semifinal loss.

The fourth-place finish was more than a statistic — it was proof that passion and discipline could bridge a seemingly impossible gap.

Hui struggled to describe the moment. "I imagined this scene many times," he said softly. "But when it actually happened, I still couldn't believe it was real."

For Ho, the team's breakthrough carries meaning far beyond a single tournament.

"The National Games allowed more people to see Hong Kong handball," he said. "It brings hope and possibilities for the sport's future development in Hong Kong."

Xinhua