HK50: John ‘Stingray’ Onifa takes men’s title as Katrina Hamlin wins for women in return of classic island event
- The event returned after a hiatus due to Covid-19 and the highly technical course was the recipient of mild weather on Saturday
- ‘Stingray’ a North Face Adventure Team racer from the Philippines, used splits from Kenyan runner, who set the course record a few years back
John “Stingray” Onifa of the Philippines won the 50-kilometre men’s event in a time of four hours, 32 minutes and 48 seconds, while Katrina Hamlin of the UK won the women’s division with a time of 5:29:32.
The course starts at The Peak Galleria on Hong Kong Island and finishes at Wong Nai Chung Gap. The event was last held in person back in 2019 (it went virtual in 2020), and is known for being highly technical with a lot of tight elevation changes.
“The course was nice, the last three mountains were very hard,” said Onifa, who runs for the North Face Adventure Team. “The weather was perfect, but my legs were still tight from UTMB (in August). I cramped a bit, but I managed to hang on. I tried to follow the Kenyan split times a few years ago, was amazed at how fast that guy ran, and kept drinking lots of water. Very happy with my time.”
Onifa was referring to Kenyan runner Benard Kiplangat Kibilo who set the course record in 2018 with a time of 4:19:37.
