Jane Richards hits her stride with record-breaking run in Riverside Classic
Australian, winner of the half marathon last month, clocks personal 10km best of 36:33
Jane Richards staged a lifetime best performance to break the women’s course record in winning the ANS Sha Tin 10km Riverside Classic at Siu Lek Yuen on Sunday.
The Australian runner, who moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai less than a year ago, has been running well since acclimatising to the local conditions, and among her recent achievements was victory in the half marathon event at last month’s Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon.
Richards, who has been training with several Kenyan runners recently, posted her personal best time of 36 minutes and 33 seconds for the 10 kilometre distance to break the record set by Yiu Kit-ching last year’s race.
I thought I was going to run something special today, but I didn’t think I would better Yiu’s course record of 36:51
Yiu did not defend her title yesterday, as she will travel to Denmark later this week to compete in the World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen.
“I thought I was going to run something special today, but I didn’t think I would better Yiu’s course record of 36:51,” said Richards. “Everything went really well today.”
Richards’ main threat in the women’s race was from Club Italia teammate Michelle Lowry, who was hoping for victory having placed second to Yiu last year.
But Richards opened up a gap of more than a minute at the 5km turning point to extend her advantage, and increased this on the way home to finish more than three minutes clear at the finish line.
Visiting Kenyan athlete Amos Maindi Maiyo won the men’s race in a good time of 31:27 after some dominant front running left compatriot Agustus Kavutu Mbusya (33:08) to hold off Matthew Clarke (33:15) in third place.
