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Hong Kong Mountain Marathon Report, Feb 1, 2009
Report | Results | Splits Habitat Property King of the Hills Hong Kong Mountain Marathon Over 300 runners ventured to Tai Tam Country Park for a bullish start to the Year of the Ox. The weather cooperated, though it was deceptively humid and times were generally slower than the previous year. Full Marathon – Dominating Dudes Chuck Cosman and Dudes’ Trailwalker teammate, Jeremy Ritcey, ran neck and neck for the first hour plus to the base of General Rock. Chuck decided to attack the punishing scramble to the top of Mount Parker and opened up a 2-minute lead that proved to be the difference in the race. Chuck exactly maintained the lead to win by 2 minutes for his first KOTH victory. Jan Littlewood finished third. Peter Lee won an excellent men’s M40+ battle that saw him, Michael Maddess, Benjamin Blain, and Rob James all within striking distance of each other at the halfway point. By the time they headed up the Twins, Peter had moved decisively into first, with Michael second and Ben third. Patrick Ford again bested Chan Kwok Keung by a few minutes to secure the M45+ title. Chan See Kau placed third again in what has become a predictable finishing order this series. Ng Yan Chau won in the M50+ division again and broke his own age category course record in doing so. However, he was pursued the entire way by Chan Hoi Nam - who also broke the previous course record. Ng Chi Wah finished third. Law Kwong Chow won the M55+ race in a division that has not had a dominant participant this series. Rolf Claus stepped up from the half marathons to finish second and Chan Kiu Heep finished third. 67-year old Yeung Wing Kai was the oldest person to complete the entire race and looked none the worse for the wear. Lee Bik Sai won the women’s race, ahead of veteran Melissa Yeung Meilun. Lee appears to have stolen her husband Law Chor Kin’s mojo over the holidays as it was her first series win this season and his first race not finishing first. F40+ Leung Siu Kuen was third overall (2nd in her category), followed by open runners Leung Wiwin and Cheung Ngar Sze. Leung Oi Yim rounded out the female podium finishers. Half Marathon – Parr for the course Dan Parr passed Peter Northam on the technical downhill from Boa Vista and held on for his first KOTH half marathon victory. Peter was second across the line as well as the first M45+ veteran. Third overall went to fifty-year old mountain goat Leung Ping. David Barr finished 4th (second in the open category), followed by road racer Stephen O’Leary who won the M40+ race and remarked that this had been his first ever trail race and that running through a stream during a race was a novel new experience for him. Nicholas Langford and Anthony Davies finished close behind for 2nd and 3rd among the 40 year olds. Stephane Le Vacon finished third in the open category. Derek Irwin was second in the M45+, followed by Stuart Gates. Choi Fu Loi was second in the M50+, followed by Kenneth Koo. Tsang Sing You broke Wong Peter Chun Tung’s streak of consecutive M55+ victories, narrowly edging Peter out. Cho Yan Kwong finished third. Lucy Marriott professed to not being in her best form following the Chinese New Year holidays, but still won comfortably over Kate Rutherford, who claimed second following a sprint across the beach with third place Lise Harrow. Catherine Leonard is learning to love the trails after winning her second consecutive F40+ KOTH half marathon. This time she was followed by Anne Knecht and Jacqui Saffery. Henry Tsui provided the humorous story of the day. After completing the half marathon, he approached me to say that he had made the mistake of running with his car key in his shorts and that he had lost it on the trail. A little while later he returned to report sheepishly that he had found his car key in the nether regions of his shorts. On a less happy note, we still have some serial litter bugs in our races. Our sweeps found several gel tops on the trail as well as water bottles tossed into the catch waters. This is unacceptable and we may be forced to impose a ban on taking water bottles away from the checkpoints if the problem persists. We also experienced the same problem that we did in 2008 of deliberate vandalism of KOTH marking signs prior to the race. The signs were put up on the Friday before the race and state very clearly in both English and Chinese that they will be taken down on Sunday following the race – which we do. It is hard to imagine a safe course marking method with less environmental impact. However, this has not stopped a hiker along one section of trail from taking down the signs and then throwing them in a heap by the side of the trail – not even in the litter barrels – the day before the race. We would be grateful to anyone who has any leads as to whom this person might be who wants to deprive KOTH runners of having safe fun on our lovely trails. We would like to stop one jerk from ruining the fun of many. The next and final race in the series takes place in Sham Tseng on Sunday, 22nd February and serves as the tiebreaker to determine category winners. See www.seyonasia.com/koth for further details. Happy trails. Keith Noyes Race Director KOTH Habitat Property KOTH Sai Kung Mountain Marathon Results, 4 January 2009 Half Marathon Results MO: 1) Dan Parr, 1:58:32; 2) David Barr, 2:01:54; 3) Stephane Le Vacon, 2:05:02 MV-40: 1) Stephen O’Leary 2:02:23; 2) Nicholas Langford, 2:04:14; 3) Anthony Davies, 2:04:49 MV-45: 1) Peter Northam, 1:59:32; 2) Derek Irwin, 2:05:12; 3) Ross Dawson, 2:12:44 MV-50: 1) Leung Ping,2:00:06 ; 2) Choi Fu Loi, 2:08:34; 3) Kenneth Koo, 2:25:52 MV-55: 1) Tsang Sing You, 2:16:00; 2) Wong Peter Chun Tung, 2:16:53; 3) Cho Yan Kwong, 2:37:09 FO: 1) Lucy Marriott, 2:13:21; 2) Kate Rutherford, 2:26:05; 3) Lise Harrow, 2:26:07 FV-40: 1) Catherine Leonard, 2:26:44; 2) Anne Knecht, 2:34:04; 3) Jacqui Saffery, 2:39:59 Full Marathon Results: MO: 1) Chuck Cosman, 3:08:28, 2) Jeremy Ritchey, 3:10:18, 3) Jan Littlewood, 3:21:23 MV-40: 1) Peter Lee, 3:21:42; 2) Michael Maddess, 3:25:05; 3) Benjamin Blain, 3:27:01 MV-45: 1) Patrick Ford, 3:35:37; 2) Chan Kwok Keung, 3:37:41; 3) Chan See Kau, 3:54:01 MV_50: 1) Ng Chau Yan, 3:41:28; 2) Chan Hoi Nam, 3:41:56, 3) Ng Chi Wah, 3:54:47 MV-55: 1) Law Kwong Chow, 4:06:34, 2) Claus Rolf, 4:20:01; 3) Chan Kiu Heep, 4:44:08 FO: 1) Lee Bik Sai, 4:06:59. 2) Leung Wiwin, 4:45:48, 3) Cheung Ngar Sze, 4:49:38 FV-40: 1) Yeung Mei Lun, 4:14:23. 2) Leung Siu Kuen, 4:40:09, 3) Leung Oi Yim, 5:38:13 |
