Hong Kong Marathon: organisers look to April if Covid-19 claims January 2021 date
- The Hong Kong Amateur Athletic Association needs to make a decision next month if the event will be held as scheduled on January 24
- The 2020 showpiece was cancelled only two weeks before the February 9 race as the coronavirus outbreak first began to spread
Organisers of the 2021 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon have set April as a fallback date if the annual showpiece cannot be held on January 24 because of the pandemic.
“It’s worrying,” said Hong Kong Amateur Athletic Association chairman Kwan Kee. “We are closely monitoring the situation as we all know what’s happening in Hong Kong.
“The safety of all participants, volunteers and race officials is always at the top of our list. It would be impossible to stage the race under the current social distancing and group gathering requirements for health reasons as we are talking about a huge number of participants.
“Fortunately, there is still some more time before we can start the entry process. But it will not be too long. We’ll have to make a decision by next month or we will not have sufficient time for the preparation work.
“If we decide the event cannot be held in January, we have set another date in April after considering all the possible factors.”
Save the date – Hong Kong Marathon set to return on January 24, 2021
Kwan said the availability of Victoria Park for the finish, the traffic conditions, the Lunar New Year holiday and the weather were all taken into account before deciding on the April date. There is also another fallback date in October but it is not under consideration at this stage.
“We want to get some feedback from the runners if we move the event to April,” Kwan said. “They may have some other thoughts as this is not our usual schedule for the marathon. But we have to make adjustments in all aspects of life under the pandemic.”
The HKAAA was only given two weeks before the government decided to call off the 2020 marathon on February 9 as the deadly coronavirus first began to spread.
Hong Kong Marathon cancelled in wake of coronavirus outbreak
“We suffered a big financial loss when we dropped the 2020 event,” Kwan said. “We had to refund all the participantsand had to pay the contractors as it was called off just two weeks before, when all preparation work had been completed.
The HKAAA would be expected to rake in around HK$29 million in entry fees, while contracting work is understood to cost over HK$10 million.
“We therefore want to make sure the 2021 January schedule is feasible or we would rather hold off for a while and wait until April.”
After cancelling the 2020 event, the HKAAA asked runners to save the date of January 24 for the showpiece in 2021.
At that time, the pandemic had infected more than four million people worldwide but since then the figure has increased by four times to over 16.2 million people, with a death toll of nearly 650,000.
