Ngai Kang’s Wings for Life World Run victory at Happy Valley Racecourse on Sunday has been made all the more remarkable after the Hong Kong distance runner revealed he was confined to his Kwai Chung home for 16 hours during a mandatory testing exercise on the weekend of the event. The 29-year-0ld took part in the charity run for the first time, finishing with a cumulative distance of 52.13km to take the overall title in Hong Kong, and finishing 30th in the world. “Our building was locked down at 3pm last Friday, I got the negative test result at 7.42am on Saturday morning,” said Ngai, who was also set to run a 10,000-metre race at Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground at 9.15am that day. “I was fortunate to meet the time,” added Ngai, who won bronze in the men’s event in 34:34.20. On Sunday night, nearly 100 Hong Kong runners competed against the “Catcher Cars” at Happy Valley, and Ngai was the overall champion in the city, while Lau King-fung finished second with 50.19km. The charity run is unique in that there is no set finish line. Instead, 30 minutes after the starting signal, the “Catcher Cars” will start moving and gradually accelerate to overtake the runners one by one, either in real or virtual form. With Covid-19 restrictions in place, athletes in Hong Kong were able to choose between running at Happy Valley, or joining the race from their favourite spot in the city using the Wings for Life World Run app, which linked them to competitors around the world. “Actually, I treated this run as a long training session and my target was approximately 43km, not intending to run more than 50km,” said Ngai. “Finishing in the top 30 overall was also beyond my expectation.” Sandra Ho won the women’s category with 31.15km, followed by Carbie Gulo who was second with 25.36km. The 27-year-old Natasha Wong Tsz-yan completed the run with 5km after seven months of recovery from an operation on a meniscus tear in her right knee. “After the operation, I had to use crutches for over a month and a half, and walking up and down the stairs was really tough,” said Wong. “That’s why I found this charity run so meaningful.” The event, which began in 2014, attracted over 160,000 runners from 165 countries this year, raising a total of €4.7 million (HK$38.85 million) for spinal cord research through entry fees and donations. Japan’s Jo Fukuda, who ran 64.43km, and Nina Zarina from Russia, who clocked 56km, were the respective men’s and women’s global winners for the 2022 edition of the event. Among those taking part around the world were celebrities such as Slovenian President Borut Pahor, Danish windsurfing legend Bjorn Dunkerbeck, Austrian former World Cup alpine ski racer Macel Hirscher, Belgian professional road and cyclocross racer Wout von Aert, and Norwegian 400m hurdles world-record holder Karsten Warholm.