The ultimate Grade A basketball champions will be decided at the 2003/04 All-Hong Kong Schools Jing Ying Tournament, which starts on Sunday.
Five days of high-intensity, do-or-die court action will test the champions and runners-up from each of the six New Territories divisions and Hong Kong and Kowloon districts, as they bid for one of Hong Kong's most coveted school sports titles.
Sha Tin district champions Jockey Club Ti-I College (Ti-I) emerged victorious in last year's boys' competition when they beat Tuen Mun's top team, CCC Tam Lee Lai Fun Memorial Secondary
School (TLLF).
In the girls' section, Hong Kong Island champions Ying Wa Girls' School beat Heep Yunn School (Kowloon) to win the title for the third straight year.
The TLLF boys go into the knock-out tournament on a high, following promising results in the past six months. Last July TLLF won their first Basketball Marathon crown when they stunned the defending champions, Newman College, in the semi-finals and then beat a strong Ying Wa College in the final.
In the Super X Inter-School Challenge in September, a warm-up competition for the new season, TLLF placed third despite injuries to some of their key players. Newman, who gained revenge by beating TLLF in the semi-finals, edged out Fanling Rhenish Church Secondary School (FRCSS) in the championship match.
TLLF clinched the Tuen Mun district title on Wednesday night for the sixth consecutive year.
As champions, they will be seeded, and that means they skip the first round of the Jing Ying event.
Their first match on Monday could be against the defending champions, Ti-I, who were runners-up in the Sha Tin and Sai Kung district competition.
Ti-I must first overcome ELCHK Lutheran Secondary School in their opener on Sunday.
'It is difficult to say how well we can do,' said TLLF coach Liang Kwun-fan.
'All the teams are good. I think Newman and Ying Wa are the main contenders for the title. But on paper we are strong. It really depends who is best on the day.'
Newman, FRCSS, St Joseph's College, Queen's College, The Jockey Club Eduyoung College, Ying Wa and YCH Tung Chi Ying Memorial Secondary School are the other seeded teams who don't play until Monday.
In the girls' competition, Sacred Heart Canossian College look hard to beat. Sacred Heart stunned Ying Wa Girls' School to clinch the Hong Kong district title recently. TLLF girls, the Tuen Mun champions, will be among the challengers.
They won the Super-X title in September.
