Belachew wins the Hong Kong Marathon as 74,000 runners fill the city
Ethiopia's Bizuneh Melaku Belachew won in 2:09:39 and all three men on the podium broke 2:10; Shitaye Eshete of Bahrain took the women's race in 2:27:03.
Photograph: runners in the 2026 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon on 18 January 2026, by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsBizuneh Melaku Belachew of Ethiopia won the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon on Sunday in 2:09:39. Kenya's Silas Too was second in 2:09:57 and Francis Kipkorir Langat third in 2:09:59. All three finished inside the 2:10:00 the organisers had set as a bonus line, so each collected 8,000 US dollars on top of prize money; the winner's cheque was 65,000 dollars.
Shitaye Eshete of Bahrain won the women's race in 2:27:03, inside her own bonus line of 2:28:30. Ethiopia's Nigisti Haftu was second in 2:29:13 and Kenya's Linet Chepkwemoi Masai third in 2:29:23. Virginia Lo Ying Chiu was the first Hong Kong woman home, in 2:41:29, for the second time.
The size of the thing is the other number. The organisers set a quota of 74,000 runners across the marathon, half and 10 km, and reported more than 120,000 registrations, an all-time high. A quarter of entrants came from outside Hong Kong, from 110 countries and regions, and the elite field had 42 international runners. Local runners who broke three hours, or three and a half for women, got a 1,000 Hong Kong dollar bonus; 299 of them did. The 2027 race is set for 17 January.
Three men under 2:10 at the front, and 74,000 people behind them. Hong Kong has turned a hard, humid course into one of the biggest running days in Asia.
Sources: Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon; World Athletics.
