Sergeants Steven Lee Siu-wah, Chan Wai-che and Lau Tong-yuk, along with team leader, Inspector Patrick Man Kin-hung, won four medals each, three of them gold.

OffBeat caught up with the delighted marksmen when they returned from Stockholm, and SGT Lau said the elation was only just starting to hit them.

"Even though we won the medals I didn't initially feel too excited afterwards because you compete giving 100 per cent concentration over five days and that really exhausts your mind. But now I've recovered from that, it's really so fantastic we won the medals!" he said.

On target: SGT Steven Lee and IP Patrick Man (back row) join SGTs Lau Tong-yuk and Chan Wai-che after the games

SGT Lee added: "Before the competition, I didn't expect we'd win anything as we saw most of the competing teams were really very strong, some had members who had represented their countries in the Olympics before. So now we've won the medals, we're really very happy."

IP Man said many of the competitors hailed from eastern European countries and Russia, places renowned for their skilled marksmen."SGT Lee and I competed in the previous Police and Fire Games in Melbourne in 1995, and Calgary in 1997. But this year with more competitors from these countries, the teams were very strong which made the competition much tougher," he said.

SGT Chan added: "I was actually a little surprised with all the individual medals we won. But before the games I knew we were a strong team and I was confident we would win something in the team events."

The marksmen won a silver medal each in the Police Action Pistol Team Event, C Class, and a bronze each in the PPC Team Event, Sharp-Shooter Class.

SGT Lee also won a gold and a bronze in the Marksman Class, while SGT Chan won gold in the Centre-Fire Marksman Class, and a bronze in the Sharp-Shooter Class.

IP Man took two bronze medals in the Expert Class and SGT Lau won gold in the Revolver Individual, C Class, along with a silver in the Marksman Class.

And what are the boys going to do with their well-earned medals?

"I'm hanging mine on the lounge room wall!" said SGT Lee.

SGT Lau said: "I'm going to give them to my family. One for my wife, and one each for my three sons."

And SGT Chan had similar ideas: "I"m going to offer them to my daughter, as an incentive to get very good results in school!"

However IP Man had the final word.

"We would like to say thanks to the Police Sports Council for their excellent support which helped make us as competitive as possible for the games."



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