Hong Kong Football Club Junior Soccer coaches smash island loop in under seven hours for charity
- HKFC Junior Soccer club coaches trek around Hong Kong Island anticlockwise for KELY Support Group
- Loop the Island organiser Martin Cerullo, who is also a coach at the club, says kids’ mental health is paramount right now during the pandemic
Martin Cerullo said running around Hong Kong Island is quite the experience.
The Hong Kong Football Club Junior Soccer coach did so in exceptional time, six hours and 24 minutes, along with a select few other coaches, all for charity. Cerullo said the 6o-kilometre trek, which they did clockwise, that has more than a 1,000 metres of elevation change is something he will never forget.
“Where it starts to get a bit busier is around Wong Chuk Hang through to Aberdeen when you’re along the fish market and you’re dodging in and out of trolleys being pushed with fish in them, and trucks coming in and out and there’s water spraying everywhere,” said Cerullo, who set out at 5am from the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club on March 27.
“It’s such an amazing route, what you see of Hong Kong, the contrast, the city, fishing ports, glistening buildings in Central, semi-industrial, through to Stanley and Big Wave Bay, you see everything of Hong Kong in one loop.”
Cerullo was joined by 13 other coaches with the HKFC Junior Soccer club for the first annual Loop the Island, which has already raised HK$100,000 for KELY Support Group, a non-profit which focuses on mental health for kids. Cerullo said there were three groups of coaches who completed the loop in various times, his group, one that did it in eight hours and 42 minutes, one that did it in 11 hours and the final group who did it in 12 hours and 25 minutes.
All four groups finished at the HKFC training grounds in Happy Valley, doing a celebratory lap around the field. The location of all the runners was also posted on the big screen scoreboard for the kids to watch as their coaches completed the gruelling loop. The initiative was part of a bigger month-long fundraiser which saw HKFC Junior football players, coaches, families and friends trek a combined 6,206 kilometres, which works out to 103 loops of the island.
Cerullo said Hong Kong Island is becoming more runner friendly over the years which made their journey, which cut through some of the busiest thoroughfares in the city, a moving experience in some ways. He said he highly recommends the route to anyone looking to get a fulsome view of Hong Kong.
“As the waterfront becomes more accessible from Kennedy Town through to Causeway Bay, as they’re improving that it’s getting ever better. You’ve got art installations, and even on the other side from Cyberport through to Aberdeen, you’ve got statues there and shrines which just give you such a different impression.”
“Obviously, it’s been very difficult over the past few months for them to get out and do much of anything in terms of sport,” said Cerullo, who has been a coach for five years and heads up the U14 girls team. “And what I see is whenever they come back to sport, you can see the smile on their face and the alleviation. They’ve been cooped up, and that was part of the reason we did this event was to give people a reason to get out.”
Cerullo said he couldn’t think of a better cause right now that trying to make sure kids get through this pandemic with both their mental and physical well-being intact.
“Mental health in Hong Kong has a long history of negative connotation and stigma, experiencing a lack of support and resources. The situation has, in many ways, been worsened by the current pandemic, where the challenges we are all facing are exacerbating mental health issues.”
