Hong Kong record runner Harry Loasby coaches youngsters to focus on fulfilment not performance, after growing tired of bureaucracy
- Harry Loasby hopes happy runners will make fast runners as he founds Buffalo Running Company to focus on youth
- Cross country specialist wondered why he bothered after dealing with bureaucracy
Chasing records was no longer a sustainable motivation for Harry Loasby’s running career as the Hong Kong runner chalked up an impressive CV but was left wondering what why he bothered.
Loasby, 25, reflected on why he runs and now manages a growing running club of talented youngsters, Buffalo Running Company. It focuses on the intrinsic values of running and teamwork, rather than the binary outcomes of speed and podiums.
He hopes happy runners will make fast runners, creating a pathway for Hong Kong’s competitive athletes and a community for others who just want to run.
Loasby ran track and cross country for Hong Kong’s youth set up. He then went to college in America where he set the Hong Kong 1,500m youth record and the 3,000m youth and men’s records. He broke his own records a number of times but the pleasure he should have felt was robbed by Hong Kong’s bureaucracy.
“It took the Hong Kong Amatuer Athletics Association (HKAAA) six months to approve one of the records I set in America, which is ridiculous. It’s the 21st century, records go like that because it’s all electronic. But it took meetings, reviews and countless emails from USA Track & Field (USATF) just for them for them to give it to me,” he said.