Seyon Asia Limited
Sai Kung Mountain Marathon - Sunday, October 13, 2002

Report | Results | Splits

When the going gets hot, some got going…

The Sai Kung Mountain Marathon never fails to punish. It can be cool and dry the entire week before the race, but it's a good bet that the weather will be hot and humid on race day. This year was no exception.

The course is also renowned for enticing people to go too fast and then kicking their butts. The first half isn't that hilly, but the sun can be relentless and many lose heart when they realize that Hoi Ha is only the second checkpoint and not the end of the half marathon. Those continuing onto the full marathon frequently find they've gone to fast early and get eaten up and spit out by the rough hills of the second half.


The Full Marathon

One person who paced himself perfectly was Choi Kau. Content to let others lead through Hoi Ha, he gradually upped his tempo after that and decimated the field for a 22-minute victory (4:14:30). Choi, who is 45, is from the fire services, has run mid-2:30's marathons and would like to do a 12 hour Trailwalker if he could find 3 teammates who could keep up with him.

Starting very conservatively because of the heat, Lau Yu Chun didn't even begin to assert himself until the second half of the race. Moving up from 15th place at the halfway point, he sailed past all but Choi to finish second in the race. He then went back and re-ran the closing leg with one of his Cosmo Boy teammates. Talk about too much left at the end! It would be interesting to see Lau really take it out hard one of these days. Fred Bourquin ran a very smart race to finish 3rd overall, ahead of Wong Kwok Leung(MV-40), Tony Tse (M)), Ho Hon Ming (MV-40) and Peter Winn (MO) in that order.

Kin Hang once again dominated the M-55+ category with Lam Ngok Kam beating out Wong Pak Kun for the victory, with John Fowler coming in third to break up the party (impressively under 6 hours at the age of 65!)

Claire Price showed that all of her adventure racing and long training sessions have paid off with a strong 5:10:45 to win the women's race. Amelia Varley (FO), Yau Lan Kiu (FV) and Wong Suk Wah (FO) all finished strongly as well.


Half Marathon

The half marathon was not about pacing, but rather about survival. Last year's winner, John Power, Neil Tate, Simon Phillips and Marcus Giles all set off at breakneck speed despite the conditions. While the others faded over the long stretch between Yung Shue O and Hoi Ha, Neil Tate continued to surge and ended up smashing the course record by nearly 8 minutes, finishing in an astounding, 1:37:26. Marcus Giles was second, more than 15 minutes off the pace, followed by Greg Anderson. Previously a roadie, Neil said that training fro TW this year had given him the confidence and stamina for trail running, but that he had still worried as the others fell back that he must be going too fast. He admitted to fear of blowing up himself and said that if he had known how big his lead had grown to, he would have slowed down. Neil's time has the feel of a record that could stand for a while.

Not content with 6 course records in the KOTH series, Chiaki Fjelddahl added the SKM women's half marathon record to her collection of records with a winning time of 2:02:28. After collecting her prize, Chiaki went on to run the rest of the full marathon course as a "training exercise." Catherine Leonard also ran superbly and came in under the previous course record time, looking fresh enough to do it again. Catherine admitted that home field knowledge helped her on the course, but we suspect that with her current fitness level, she could post many good results in the series. Grace Balintong also ran well to finish 3rd in what turned out to be an unusually deep women's field on the day.

Familiar names dominated the veteran categories. Philippe Guillo beat out Dean Lewis and Ng Ping Sing in the M-40+ category, while evergreen Mike Cooke outraced John Tanner and Peter Widmer in the M-55+ category. In the F-40+ category, Brigitte Zeltner Widmer managed to edge out Caryl Hartwright by 2 minutes while Evelyn Ferguson made her mountain half marathon debut a good one with a 3rd place finish.

The next race in the series starts in Taipo on December 15th. With the half marathon course going over Cloudy Hill and the Pat Sing Leng, and the full marathon continuing around Plover Cove, this is a much hillier course than the one just run in Sai Kung. Please see www.seyonasia.com for details.

Results - Full Marathon
Male Open: 1) Lau Yu Chun, 4:36:28; 2) Fred Bourquin, 4:43:30; 3) Tony Tse, 4:44:40
Male Veteran: 1) Choi Kau, 4:14:30; 2) Wong Kwok Leung, 4:44:11; 3) Ho Hon Ming, 4:47:28
Male Senior: 1) Lam Ngok Kan, 5:20:12; 2) Wong Pak Kan, 5:29:30; 3) John Fowler, 5:52:47
Ladies Open: 1) Claire Price, 5:10:45; 2) Amelia Varley, 5:27:53; 3) Wong Suk Wah, 6:00:04
Ladies Veteran: 1) Yau Lan Kiu, 5:35:24.

Results - Half Marathon
Male Open: 1) Neil Tate, 1:37:26; 2) Marcus Giles, 1:52:40; 3) Greger Anderson, 1:53:17
Male Veteran: 1) Philippe Guillo, 2:07:20; 2) Dean Lewis, 2:08:43; 3) Ng Ping Sing, 2:13:36
Male Senior: 1) Mike Cooke, 2:08:35; 2) John Tanner, 2:15:11; 3) Peter Widmer, 2:35:31
Ladies Open: 1) Chiaki Fjelddahl, 2:02:28; 2) Catherine Leonard, 2:05:56; 3) Grace Balintong, 2:14:59
Ladies Veteran: 1) Brigitte Zeltner-Widmer, 2:35:20; 2) Caryl Hartwright, 2:37:16; 3) Evelyn Ferguson, 2:50:23

Keith Noyes