A 50-year-old man, Mr Lee, lost consciousness after 6 kilometres into his 10km race at Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2018. He was brought to the intensive care unit at Eastern Hospital – after being transferred from Ruttonjee Hospital, according to SCMP. On Wednesday, 24 January 2018, Mr Lee was certified dead.
Earlier, two other people were also listed as critical, but their conditions have since improved. They are a 51-year-old man at Queen Mary who participated in the full marathon, and a 28-year-old man at Queen Elizabeth who joined the half marathon.
This year, 32 runners of Hong Kong Marathon 2018 were taken to the hospital, compared to 27 last year.
Despite the forecast suggesting humidity could reach a staggering 90 percent on Sunday, the official said most of the race was held under cool conditions. The temperature hovered between 15 to 19.6 degrees Celsius while the humidity level was between 74 to 87 percent during the race.
Chinese runners dominated half-marathon race
Mainland runners filled the podium for Half-Marathon categories in Hong Kong Marathon. Li Chunhui and Liu Hongliang both crossed the finish line at 1:10:00, but it was Li who won the title. Less than a minute behind them, Wang Kun rounded up the podium by finishing at 1:10:25.
In the women’s half, Hao Xiaofan, Yue Chao and Li Shiyi claimed victories in 1:18:13, 1:20:49 and 1:22:21 respectively. It was Hao’s first visit to Hong Kong; the 28-year-old teacher said, “We train very hard in China and the weather was perfect.”
Ngai Kang teared up as he won local’s marathon category
Ngai Kang, who began running full-time a year ago, was crowned the champion of Hong Kong Marathon in local’s category. Ngai completed the race with 2:31:30. He was followed closely by Tsui Chi-kin and Wan Cheuk-hei who finished in 2:32:29 and 2:32:35. Ngai said,
I am still new to marathon running and there is plenty of room for improvement. The victory and the result will also boost my confidence as I prepare for the Asian Games this summer and qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
The best local women’s runner was Natasha Wong Tsz-yan, who won the title with a time of 2:55:18. The 22-year-old said the high humidity affected her performance.
Only 83.7 percent of the 74,365 entries showed up with a total 62,284 attending the event.
Update: 29 January 2018
