Knowledge of 15km course gives Yu Hin-wa winning edge

Local knowledge proved invaluable for 21-year-old Yu Hin-wa as he cruised to a 26-second victory in the Brooks Hong Kong 15km Challenge at Long Valley near Sheung Shui on Sunday.

Tai Po-based Yu works as a teaching assistant at a secondary school in nearby Sheung Shui, so he knows the course inside out from his training runs in the area. Yu also won the overall title in this event when he was a junior in 2012, although over a slightly amended course around the Ng Tung River at Long Valley.

"I like the course as it's flat and fast, and the conditions today were just about perfect for distance running," said Yu, who has finished in the top five in four of his past five races.

"My plan was to stay at the back of the front pack in the early stages of the race and then to increase the pace when the time was right, which I did at the 8km mark," added Yu, a member of The Citizens Athletic Club.

Yu's personal best time of 50 minutes and three seconds was 26 seconds faster than Adrian Lowther. Yu then waited his girlfriend Mandy Ho Lok-man to reach the finish, which she did in overall sixth place, but more than eight minutes adrift of Yiu Kit-ching, who set a new women's course record of 54:07, which was also a new Hong Kong record for the distance.

The 26-year-old Olympic marathon hopeful was again in scintillating form in demolishing the women's field and won by a massive margin of more than six minutes over second placed Fan Ka-king, and the only female runner to break the hour mark.