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15 May, 2022

Mud new appreciation - Airault wins again, Ching powers thru Women

Mud is the new appreciation just to race - Airault grabs Sai Kung win again, while Ching powers thru Women’s course win

HONG KONG, May 14, 2022 With the pandemic easing, restrictions slowly being lifted and some leading epidemiologists quoted in the news suggesting the pandemic is now endemic, Action Asia Events was granted permission for the already postponed sold out Sai Kung 50 in association with Goodman trail running and Skyrunning event to take place over 2 days.

The Sai Kung 50 was sold out with over 500 participants before the 5th wave started with organizers agreeing to split the event over 2 days with the 54km and 13km on Saturday and the 22km distance on Sunday. Bad weather forced last minute course changes on the 54km course being reduced in distance to 35km and the re-routing of the 13km course to a 14km slightly easier course due to difficult river crossings from 3 days of rain bringing out the true definition of a skyrunning technical course that many had not experienced in Hong Kong before.

With strict hygiene government regulations asking participants to do a PCR test within 48 hours of the race, do a Rapid Antigen Test race morning, having 3 vaccination shots, wear face masks at the start & finish line, organizers Action Asia Events doing temperature tests before the start, no food allowed on the course, enforcement of a distance of 1m away from staff when getting water served by large dispensers and water jugs, hand sanitizer at check points and start/finish, the 35km / 14km got under way with wave starts to separate the participants apart.

Frenchman Ferdinand Airault (HKSports Clinic x Lantau Base Camp) grabbed the overall Men’s win while Flora Ching (HKSAR/Canada) was the overall Women’s 35km winner.

At the finish with a big smile after previous wins on Action Asia courses including the Sai Kung 54km course in 2020, Ferdinand Airault said “happy as first 10k was a bit difficult. Ran with KC and Ryan and knew my friends were stronger on the downhill so decided to push harder on the up hills. The landscape was amazing, felt great and all the support and marshals were also great. Thankyou Action Asia. So happy. Might leave HK for a few months, but will be back in October” said overall winner of the 35km Ferdinand.Airault.

Second place in the Men’s 35km and also 2nd in the SK50 2020 edition was Ryan Whelan (Gone Running/Joint Dynamics) - the big Liverpool fan was full of praise saying great race today, luckily weather gods were with us so big thankyou for those who went out on days before the race during the big rains to set the course as really well marked, very slippery so you had to be careful, all the runners were looking out for each other telling people when there was a hard part coming up and great checkpoints and happy to finish as still warm out there, great to finally have a race and big thank you to Action Asia Events and all the sponsors as awesome day today” said 2nd overall Whelan finishing in a time of 3 hours 46 minutes 2 seconds.

In third overall and just 25 seconds later in a time of 3 hours 46 minutes 27 seconds was Robin Fall (USA) saying “had a good day out there, got a little rain, got to wade thru some water up to the waist, so it was just a lot of fun with the rain cooling us down a bit and just want to thank Action Asia Events for making this happen.”

Fourth overall and the first from Hong Kong was Ka Keung Chan finishing in 3:51:31. “My English name is KC Chan and from HK. The course was slippery, but very beautiful, marking was very good and thank you Action Asia so much as great event. Hong Kong, Yeah” said Chan the first from Hong Kong..

Fifth in the overall Mens 35km was Mark Iandoli (USA) “Good things are worth waiting for. Action Asia put on an amazing event, so fun to race with everyone. Course was slippery, tricky, but it was expertly marked and I think we all found our way so thanks again. Hear is to racing- Lets bring it back.” said Iandoli finishing in 3:57:16.

In the Women’s 35km race, Flora Ching showed her technical training had shown benefits in overall win. “Really enjoyed the course today, but yes it was a bit slippery, I thought it was really technical because there was a lot of elevation, downhills were very slippery, muddy, but definitely very challenging and really enjoyed the Action Asia course” said Flora Ching winning overall in the Women’s 35km in 4 hours 37 minutes 41 seconds.

Second overall in the Women’s 35km was Angelika Hahn (Germany) “Wanted to say the water didn’t come from above, but from the ground, but was very slippery, we had to walk thru streams, but I liked it as was better than the heat so it was a great race from Action Asia” said Hahn with a time of 4:54:15.

Leona Ting Gao - (China, Beijing - HK resident) grabbed 3rd overall in the Womens35km. “Thank you Action Asia as an amazing day. I started getting excited yesterday (day before the ace) when it was raining and sure enough, we had so much fun on the course, there was so much mud, interesting spots we had to go thru the water all the time, it was slippery when we went downhill and we had so much fun. What was the difficult part was as it was slippery and I had to use a lot of strength in my body and muscles in my legs, ankles and feet causing me to get some little cramps in my feet, but overall it was nice. Thank you, Action Asia again” said Ting Gao.

Fourth across the finish line was Dolly Vargas (Philippines) in a time of 5:31:22. “Oh the whole course was so wet, slippery and when I reached the mountain, I really felt scared and fantastic at the same time and in general I loved the weather as like this for racing. Thank you so much Action Asia for arranging this as really happy. Yeah.” Said Vargas with many of her friends singing in the background as so happy.

Fifth in the Women’s 35km was Rhoda Cheung (HKSAR) from the Crazy Running Club finishing in 5:34:07. “The course is very beautiful its actually very fun and thank you so much for making this happen Action Asia” said Cheung.

The 35km course took participants on a circumnavigation of Sai Kung East Country Park, starting at Pak Tam Chung at sea-level, hiking up the 408m summit of Tai Cham Koi, technical descent to Chek Keng, trail and beach running along Tai Lo Wan, Ham Tin Wan to Sai Wan, then a climb over Lo Tei Tun at 255m summit, then over Sai Wan Shan (314m elevation) then descending to the beach of Lung Kei Wan, climbing back up to the East Dam and a coast trail run thru Pak Lap arriving back at Pak Tam Chung for a total elevation gain of over 1700m on an extremely technical muddy, wet course.

The event was organized by Action Asia Events and is possible thanks to the generous support of it’s associate sponsor Goodman, supported by Bonaqua, Action X Store, Royale International, C3fit, Salonpas, Herbalgy, ITRA, SaveWo, YAS insurance, Running HK, BeKind, New Life Plastics and AutoCamper.

The Sai Kung 50 event could not have happened without the hard-working marshal volunteers & staff that got up as early as 2am to make this event happen.

Results

Position / Bib # / Name / Nationality / Sponsor or Team / Race Time

OVERALL TOP 5 MEN - 35 km
1. (17) Ferdinand Airault - (France) HKSports Clinic x Lantau Base Camp - 03:33:36
2. (366) Ryan Whelan (UK) -- 03:46:02
3. (367) Robin Fall (US) -- 03:46:27
4. (328) Ka Keung Chan Men 18-39 HKSAR -- 03:51:31
5 (19) Mark Iandoli (US) -- 03:57:16

OVERALL TOP 5 WOMEN - 35 km
1 (356) FLORA wing yee CHING (HKSAR/Canada) -- 04:37:41
2. (36) Angelika Hahn Women (Germany) -- 04:54:15
3. (302) Ting Gao Women (China) -- 05:06:57
4. (205) Dolly Vargas (Philippines) -- 05:31:22
5. (171) Rhoda Cheung (HKSAR) - Crazy Running Club - 05:34:07

OVERALL TOP 5 MEN - 14 km
1. (890) Ka Sing Cheng - HKSAR -- 01:16:53
2. (826) Chris Davis- (UK) -- 01:18:35
3. (879) Princedeep Singh - HKSAR -- 01:19:16
4. (886) David Budden - UK -- 01:23:50
5. (860) Kwok Ho WONG - HKSAR -- 01:29:54

OVERALL TOP 5 WOMEN - 14 km
1. (901) Mei yan Wong - HKSAR -- 01:32:07
2. (895) Julie Thomas - France -- 01:54:35
3. (802) Jessica Fong - HKSAR -- 02:10:32
4. (819) Melanie Cheng - HKSAR -- 02:18:07
5 (869) Ping Wu - HKSAR -- 02:32:06

(Sunday 22km next article)

end

Race Info

Event Name	*Sai Kung 50 in association with Goodman - race 3 of the HK50 Series 2021-2022*
Date	Saturday, May 14 & Sunday May 15, 2022
Start Time	Saturday May 14 6:00am - 35 km 7:00am - 14 km Sunday May 15 6:15am - 22 km
Start & FinishLocation	Pak Tam Chung, N.T. Sai Kung, Hong Kong
Distance	35 km (54 km reduced to 35 due to weather) 22 km 14 km (changed from 13km due to high river)
Category	Trail Running and Hiking
Website	www.actionasiaevents.com https://www.actionasiaevents.com/our-events/2022-sai-kung-50/ or https://www.actionasiaevents.com/our-events/past-events/