The cheers at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Sports Park lingered long after the final buzzer. More than 5,000 fans rose to their feet, clapping and shouting as the Hong Kong men's handball players gathered at center court — arms wrapped around one another, tears mixing with sweat.

They didn't win. The team fell 33-25 to Beijing in the bronze-medal match at China's 15th National Games on Nov 10.

While the scoreboard didn't tell the whole story, the fourth-place finish marked Hong Kong's best-ever result since first competing in the National Games nearly three decades ago.

The Hong Kong men's handball team fielded a squad of 16 amateur players, a group rarely favored in pre-tournament predictions. What remained largely unknown, however, was the sacrifice behind their story: almost every player either resigned from their job or took unpaid leave to compete.

"Out of the 16 players, 15 currently don't have full-time jobs," said Ho Chung-ho, chairman of the Handball Association of Hong Kong, China. "There's no stable salary. What keeps them going is just the passion for the sport."

Unlike the professional teams from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong's players come from ordinary walks of life — firefighters, flight attendants and personal trainers among them.