Black Kites swimmers soar high at the HKSSF 2025 championships

By Bradley Tang

*Black Kites brought home 13 individual medals, four relay team medals, and four team trophies at the 2025 HKSSF*

While most students were enjoying their term break, 34 RCHK Black Kites swimmers raced against 680 swimmers from 45 other schools in the Sha Tin and Sai Kung school district at the Schools Sports Federation of Hong Kong (HKSSF) meet on October 13th and 15th. With intermittent heavy downpours kicking off the first events, our swimmers embraced the uncertain weather with excitement at the Ma On Shan Swimming Pool.

The Shatin and Sai Kung districts have some of the most competitive sports-specialised schools in Hong Kong. Although RCHK’s Black Kites faced some challenges competing against these top schools, our swimmers certainly did not disappoint. With both Bradley Tang (Year 8) and Chi Ching Ng (Year 10) winning silver in the Boys Grade C 100-meter Breaststroke and Girls Grade B 100-meter Backstroke events, respectively, and Maia Jim (Year 9) placing fourth in the Girls Grade C 100-meter Backstroke event, the first day kicked off with a strong performance. This was followed up with a bronze medal in the Girls C Grade 4 x 50-meter freestyle relay, swam by Natalie Chan (Year 9), Andrea Chan (Year 9), Blair Chan (Year 8), and Olivia Jim (Year 7). The Black Kites entered the 2025 HKSSF competition with a presence that could not be ignored, but this was just the beginning.

During the afternoon session of Day 1, the Black Kites continued the strong start from the morning session with the 50m qualifiers in the afternoon. The energy was buzzing all day—13 of our Black Kites swimmers qualified for their 50m finals!

To our delight, on Day 2, Hercules Ma (Year 9) tied the HKSSF Boys Grade C record for the 50m Freestyle event set in 2022/23 with a time of 26.58, claiming gold. The 200m Breaststroke Gold for Boys Grade A went to our very own Co-Captain Kal-el Chow (Year 12). “My most memorable part was definitely winning my [200m] Breaststroke race. I’ve been swimming all my life, but this was the first Gold medal I’ve won in swimming,” Kal-el said. “As a team, just the teamwork we had...I could see everyone cheering each other on, which really boosted morale.”