Hong Kong pedal ace Ceci Lee Sze-wing”s profitable title protection within the ladies’s highway biking particular person occasion through the ongoing fifteenth National Games has as soon as once more turned the highlight on town’s biking staff, which is thought for its stellar present in premier tournaments.
Lee’s gold is the second for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to date on this 12 months’s video games, and he or she can also be the third athlete from the SAR to triumph greater than as soon as on the National Games after Asian biking legend Wong Kam-po and Olympian Sarah Lee Wai-sze.
While exhausting work and self-discipline kind the mainstay of Hong Kong biking staff’s medal-winning performances, the applying of cutting-edge sports activities applied sciences developed by the joint efforts of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong has been a big contributor to its success.
A central analysis facility at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which makes a speciality of creating high-tech aerodynamic and acoustic environment, boasts a low-noise wind tunnel that may simulate a biking race surroundings.
This facility, when additional empowered by the nation’s Tianhe 2 supercomputer in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, can’t solely enhance cyclists’ driving postures, but additionally help within the improvement of probably the most appropriate bike design and biking bodysuit for them.
Zhang Xin, director of the college’s Aerodynamics and Acoustics Facility, highlighted the significance of utilizing a supercomputer to develop sports activities applied sciences. As human muscle tissues and bodily circumstances continuously change, the computation course of is complicated and requires the usage of a supercomputer, he stated.
Athletes of the Hong Kong biking staff have worn aero-speed fits developed and examined within the wind tunnel to compete at varied main sports activities occasions, together with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. These bodysuits, tailored for every athlete, are estimated to cut back wind drag by a formidable 3 p.c.
Other sports activities disciplines, corresponding to windsurfing and triathlon, have additionally employed simulations developed utilizing the supercomputer and the wind tunnel to optimize the postures and actions of athletes.
During coaching classes in Stanley on Hong Kong Island, sensors developed by the college recorded athletes’ bodily information, which was subsequently analyzed utilizing the supercomputer.
According to Zhang, the Tianhe 2 simulated the wind circumstances on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and supplied the knowledge to go coaches of the windsurfing and crusing groups. The supercomputer helped to boost athletes’ posture optimization, in addition to design and choose tools, he stated.
Sports expertise cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong has deepened in recent times, with extra agreements signed for additional improvement, serving each skilled athletes and the general public.
In September, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and mainland sportswear model Li-Ning signed a memorandum of understanding to ascertain the Li-Ning-PolyU Joint Research Centre for Sports Science, which goals to boost technological utility and promote industrial transformation within the sports activities and well being sectors.
In Guangzhou, the Nansha Sub-Center of National Supercomputer Center supplies the mainland’s first supercomputer direct community line for Hong Kong. A devoted high-speed fiber-optic community from the Tianhe 2 supercomputer is used to hyperlink Guangdong and Hong Kong’s scientific innovation capabilities, enabling Hong Kong customers to swiftly make the most of the nation’s supercomputing assets. The middle has repeatedly supplied assist for technological innovation in Hong Kong and Macao.
For athletes from Macao and Hong Kong, touring to the mainland for coaching and utilizing sports activities applied sciences to enhance their abilities have change into widespread.
Macao athlete Chan Man-hin, who participated within the National Games crusing occasion final month, stated he was geared up with a high-end GPS tracker when he skilled on the mainland. The gadget collected his efficiency information, together with instantaneous velocity and route throughout crusing, for additional evaluation to assist enhance efficiency, he stated.
“The piece of equipment allowed me to analyze all the training data and adjust my strategy for the day of the competition,” Chan stated.
The nation’s assist for sports activities improvement in its particular administrative areas extends past {hardware} to incorporate expertise cultivation.
At Guangzhou Zhongshan Whampoa School for Hong Kong and Macao Students, a base has been established to offer knowledgeable coaching platform for college students from Hong Kong. Selected pupil athletes obtain focused coaching in 5 disciplines — fencing, swimming, equestrian, taking pictures and working.
These athletes additionally get extra alternatives to take part instantly in competitions at provincial, nationwide and even worldwide ranges. By present process scientific and systematic coaching, they’ll achieve recognition of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, and have the prospect to register as Hong Kong athletes, doubtlessly turning into town’s elite sports activities representatives.