Fancy dress was once again the name of the game in the 27th staging of the Running Bare Boxing Day race at Wan Chai Gap yesterday, when more than 350 runners pulled on their running shoes to run off the excess of their Christmas Day festivities, with many dressed in outlandish outfits.
A Christmas present, several Santas, a priest, a fairy dressed in a pink tutu and even a bridal couple challenged for the prizes around the four kilometre loop of Mount Cameron, which started and finished at Wan Chai Gap park.
Philip Booth, dressed as a Christmas present, once again delighted the throng runners with his flashy outfit. Last year the 55-year-old turned up as Rod Stewart, while two years ago he waddled around the course dressed as a sumo wrestler.
Japanese couple Ryusuke and Mayumi Tada sported a bride and groom's wedding outfit with Ryusuke, a 38-year-old executive with a trading company, curiously wearing Mickey Mouse ears.
'We recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary so we decided to run the race dressed as a newly-wed couple,' said Tada.
While many of the runners wearing fancy dress costumes were pleased to simply complete the undulating 4km course, Chow Tin-fat upset the form book at the front of the field by holding off the challenge of Hong Kong marathon international Choi Tat-ming, and won the men's race in 14 minutes and 47 seconds for a slender five-second victory over Choi.