Some 150 primary school students were at the Hong Kong International Airport, where the ceremony took place, cheering and waving the regional flags of Hong Kong to welcome Hong Kong athletes back home.

The Hong Kong delegation, with 281 athletes participating in 28 events in the Doha Games, won six gold, 12 silver and 10 bronze medals. This is the best result ever achieved by Hong Kong in the Asian Games. Various Hong Kong records were also broken during the Games.

Athletes showing up at the ceremony included men's windsurfing champion Chan King-yin; Wong Kam-po and Cheung King-wai who are gold medalists of men's individual cycling road race and men's 40 km cycling points race respectively.

"The outstanding achievements of our athletes in the Asian Games will not only boost their confidence as they set their sights on the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 East Asian Games, but will also inspire more young people to follow their footsteps and actively take part in sports training," Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs Carrie Lam said at the ceremony.

Lam said that the government is pressing ahead with its strategy and initiatives to promote sports development in Hong Kong.

From April next year, the government will allocate an additional fund of 40 million HK dollars (about five million U.S. dollars) each year to provide comprehensive support for elite athletes in key areas, including education opportunities, career development, financial assistance, and athlete training and coaching support.

There will be another 30 million HK dollars (about 3.8 million U.S. dollars) additional subvention each year for national sports associations to enhance national and junior squads training and drive school sports and community sports development.

Lam also pointed out that the government's ongoing efforts to make Hong Kong a major location for international sports events would benefit Hong Kong's athletes by providing more opportunities for competition and exchange with their overseas counterparts and promoting commercial sponsorship in sports activities.