Leading Hong Kong distance runner Christy Yiu Kit-ching is refusing to be complacent for Sunday’s Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon but she remained upbeat about her chances of a maiden victory in the showpiece race, which will be without invited overseas runners for the first time in more than two decades.
“It looks like local runners will dominate the event for the first time with no overseas contingent,” said the Hong Kong record holder, who competed in last month’s China National Games in Shaanxi.
“But you never know, may be some quality runners have stayed in China for training and then come over to Hong Kong especially for the event because they do not need to go through quarantine from across the border.
“But I am ready for the challenge although my preparation time may not be that sufficient.”
Yiu said the absence of overseas runners was one of the reasons she decided to take part in her third home marathon, although she did not start serious training until last week after fully recovering from her efforts at the National Games, where she finished in 12th position.
“I was a bit worried about the short recovery time after the National Games but knowing there is a real chance to win the prestigious event, I decide to go for it,” she said.
Race walker Ching tells fellow runners to ‘treasure’ marathon’s return
“My previous best in the Hong Kong event was two hours and 38 minutes and I would be grateful if I can finish around that time. There should be one or two strong rivals locally and hopefully together we can run a good race in front of the home crowds.”
Upcoming Wong Tsz-yan, who has a personal best of 2:41:54, would have been a major threat for Yiu but she is injured and will not start.
“It’s very difficult for athletes training under the pandemic because we have no idea which event will be on or off until the very last minutes and we always have to readjust our training programmes. This makes us more susceptible to injuries,” said Yiu, who was only able to compete in two marathons on her road to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, both resulting in new Hong Kong record. She ran 2:31:21 in Milan in May.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, organisers were forced to slash the number of entries by 75 per cent, from 74,000 of previous years to 18,500 on Sunday to minimise the chances of infection. No invited overseas runners will feature in the race because of travel restrictions and strict quarantine requirements. An elite group of 300 runners in each event will start first to compete for top prizes.
In the men’s marathon, Ngai Kang, who finished first among local runners at the 2018 event, will be the man to beat, especially with the absence of Hong Kong record holder Wong Wan-chun, who chose to stay in China for training after competing in the National Games.
“I started my preparations for the Hong Kong event in September, much better than Yiu,” said Ngai. “But this will also be my first marathon in two years after the 2019 Asian Championships in China. I still feel a bit tense, but hopefully with ample build-up time, I can do a good race.”
Hong Kong Marathon runners to bear responsibility if they break NSL at annual showpiece
Ngai, who came 21st at the 2018 Hong Kong Marathon with a time of 2:31:31, said he targeted a finish of around 2:30 with the weather turning favourable for long distance events in recent days.
His biggest rival is likely to be a Japanese runner who works in Hong Kong, Masashi Shirotake, who has a personal best 2:19 when he raced in his home country.
