Jane Richards finally sees victory after 20 years
Hong Kong-based Australian says it is the first time she has won a race since she was 12
It is only taken 20 years, but Jane Richards celebrated the first victory of her running career on Sunday as the women's overall half-marathon champion.
"I can't believe I've won, I've never won a race before," said an ecstatic Richards, who finished in one hour, 26 minutes and five seconds. "I won an 800-metre track race when I was 12, but not since then."
Runner-up Karen Hung Shee-yeung was 20 seconds behind in 1:26:25, followed by Sarah Cheung Hoi-wah in 1:26:59.
I can't believe I've won, I've never won a race before. I won an 800-metre track race when I was 12, but not since then
"I'm so happy to have done my best today. It was a really windy day and there were a few tricky hills out there," said Richards, 32, a Hong Kong-based Australian. "I felt like I was being blown all over the road; it was very challenging."
Richards said her plan was to "keep it together" until the 15km mark around the Western Harbour Tunnel "and then I was just going to go for it".
"[Hung] caught me around 11 kilometres, and I was a bit worried I didn't have anything left."
Despite strong head winds, Richards found the reserves to power through to the finish in her debut Hong Kong Marathon race. "I just dug deep and stayed strong."
It was a surprising training run for Hung, who bettered last year's ninth place finishing time by almost three minutes.