Sports | Gov’t ‘waiting anxiously’ on Athletic Training Center opening

The Athletic Training Center under construction

The Athletic Training Center will be ready for operation in the last quarter of this year, according to information released yesterday by Macau sporting officials.

At a meeting of the Macau Sports Council the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, said that the sports facility “would start its operations around the fourth quarter of this year, maybe in September or October. We hope that it can operate before the end of the year.”

Tam was joined by the president of Sports Bureau (ID), Pun Weng Kun, who said that the government was “waiting anxiously on the opening of the Center and according to data available on the topic, I am confident that we can open it in the last quarter of this year.”

However, the two officials said the government was still not ready to disclose which sporting activities would be offered by the facility.

“We are still analyzing that aspect, but in the first phase what is more important is to be able to have [enough] sports facilities for the practice and training of different sports,” replied Pun in a vague manner.

Pun Weng Kun

The ID president noted that the main priority was to decide on spaces that could be used for the training of local athletes.

Commenting on two other facilities with ongoing projects – one at the site of the former Canidrome (Lin Fong Sports Center) and the other at the Mong Ha Pavilion under reconstruction – the president of the ID reaffirmed that the current facilities at Lin Fong are to be retained with more added to the venue soon. These facilities would have the dual role of serving to train athletes as well as for general public use as recreational options in the northern district.

Pun said that the new public tender has been launched for the reconstruction of the Mong Ha Pavilion and that the tender establishes a construction time of around 500 days. For this reason, the facility should be only ready to reenter into operation in “two to three years’ time.”

A calendar of sporting events and activities that Macau will either host or participate in was also presented at the meeting. The four main events this year are the Arafura Games in Australia, the University Games, the National Youth Games and the Sports Competitions for Disabled People in China.