Hong Kong Marathon prize fund slashed, with no invited overseas runners at Covid-19 delayed event
- Total prize pool drops US$227,000 from 2019 event, with 2021 winners in line for US$50,000 less
- Christy Yiu heads a strong local contingent, with all 18,500 runners needing two vaccine doses and pre-race negative test
For the first time since 1997, there will be no invited overseas winner of the annual Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, with prize money also being slashed at the delayed event.
Christy Yiu Kit-ching will head a strong local contingent at the October 24 showpiece, the first mass participatory sporting event in Hong Kong since 2020.
Entry numbers have been capped at 18,500 runners, way down on the 74,000 entries when it was last held in 2019.
In the men’s category, Ngai Kang will be the favourite as national record holder Wong Wan-chun is still training in the mainland after competing in the recent China National Games in Xian.
“We inquired with some low-risk countries to see if they would send runners to our event but the reply was not very positive,” said Kwan Kee, chairman of Hong Kong Association of Athletics Affiliates, regarding the absence of invited overseas runners.