HK100: meet Shen Jiasheng, the humble Chinese winner who burst onto the scene at UTMB
- Shen Jiasheng lives and trains with Chinese stars Qi Min and Yao Miao, but the 24-year-old is emerging from their shadow after the UTMB and HK100
Hong Kong 100 champion Shen Jiasheng is so humble even an invite to his house for Lunar New Year comes with a bashful caveat. “I am just worried the conditions in my village are very basic. My family are nong min – peasants,” the 24-year-old said, apologetically. “Even the phone reception there is bad.”
His home village is somewhere in the mountainous municipality of Qujing, not far from Yunnan’s capital of Kunming. Shen lived there until he was 15, when he was recruited into ti xiao, a sports boarding school for kids, the first step of the Chinese sports school system hierarchy.
He ran the 3,000-metres steeplechase and progressed well enough to be recruited into zhuanye dui (professional team), the next rung up on the ladder, which took him far from his native Yunnan, to Ningxia autonomous region. He trained there for five years then called it quits.
“I left zhuanye dui because I could not break into the provincial team, which would have given me good salary and conditions. So, I started trail running; competition is a lot less intense,” Shen said.
He runs road marathons occasionally, but with a 2:26 personal best, Shen is unable to challenge for major honours.