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Hong Kong Marathon 2015
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Last year problems with the online registration system meant many people missed out on race spots. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

All 23,000 places for Hong Kong half marathon snapped up within three hours

Eager runners snapped up all 23,000 slots for the popular half-marathon race in next year's Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon within three hours yesterday morning.

Lai Ying-kit

Eager runners snapped up all 23,000 slots for the popular half-marathon race in next year's Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon within three hours yesterday morning.

Organisers said all the available spots for the race, to be held in January, were filled by 10am.

After last year's registration chaos - when the online system became so overloaded by demand that it crashed and caused many people to miss out - this year's registration process appeared to run more smoothly.

With online registration beginning at 7am on a first-come, first-served basis, some enthusiastic would-be participants started waiting at their computers up to an hour early to secure a place.

One of them said in the online forum hkgolden.com that it took about 10 minutes to complete the registration process.

All 15,000 places for the full marathon were snapped up within hours on Tuesday.

Registration for the two other events, the 10km race and the wheelchair race, will commence next week on Tuesday and Friday, respectively, at 7am. Entering its 19th year, the event will be held before the Lunar New Year holiday for the first time.

An extra 500 places were added to the half-marathon from last year, but the total quota for all four races remains at 73,000.

Early registration was introduced this month for the first time for elite runners - the top 5 per cent of finishers in this year's event.

Runners in the 21km half-marathon will take a northbound route starting from Tsim Sha Tsui, before making a U-turn at the Tsing Kwai Highway.

They will then head to Hong Kong Island via the Western Harbour Tunnel to finish at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.

Organisers said they would keep the quota at 73,000 for next year's race as there was no room to expand.

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Half-marathon sells out in three hours
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