Junior runners clinch top honours in 10k race
School students Ricco Chan Ye-ko and Grace Ng Hei-man showed top form to clinch the junior honours in the Standard Chartered 10km races for the second straight year.
Waking up at 3 in the morning and making their way to the start line in Tsim Sha Tsui clearly had no detrimental effects on the pair.
Ricco, 18, a student from La Salle College, had enough energy left to sprint to the finish line and beat his closest rival, Man Siu-kit, by five seconds.
Ricco completed the race in 35 minutes, 35 seconds.
Grace, 16, a student from Chinese Foundation Secondary School, finished in 39.43.
Hui Wai-sum was second in 40.30.
Ricco and Grace each picked up the $1,500 winner's prize.
Grace's time was also the fastest among all women, but she took part in the junior (age 16-19) category, so was only eligible for that prize.
'I have done a lot of preparation for this event,' said Grace, the Hong Kong junior record holder in the 10,000 metres (track) and 10km road race.
'I was leading comfortably until the finish. I didn't feel too much pressure from other runners, and I'm happy to win again.'
Grace is now looking forward to the Taiwan 10km race next month.
'I'm confident I can do well there,' she said.
More than 23,000 runners took part in the 10km races which were held in the early hours of the morning when it was still dark.
The overall 10km winner was Hong Kong's Olympic triathlete Daniel Lee Chi-wo, 28, who clocked 32.35 after leading from the start.
Juniors also impressed in the half-marathon, a gruelling 21.1km race. Chan Hung-wai was first in the men's junior category, in a time of 1 hour, 23 minutes, 25 seconds. Ho King-fun was second in 1.24.05.
Yiu Kit-ching clocked 1.34.01 to claim the women's junior honours. Grace-Lien Chia-hsuan was second in 1.44.45.
Kenyan runner Simon Bor and Ethiopia's Dire Tune were the overall winners of the men's and women's full marathon, respectively.
Bor set a blistering pace and won his first-ever Hong Kong Marathon in 2.14.18, while Tune came in at 2.35.15. Each received a US$15,000 prize.
