Leng and Ha finish the Hong Kong 100 hand in hand; Qin Guidu wins the men's race
On a landslide-shortened 93 km course, the two women crossed together in 10:43:35 to open the World Trail Majors season; Qin won the men's race in 8:52:36.
Photograph: the MacLehose Trail, Hong Kong, in January 2015, by rheins, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Hong Kong 100 opened the World Trail Majors season on Saturday, and its women's race ended with two winners. Hau Ha of Vietnam led for most of the day and was 3 minutes 48 seconds clear with 9 km to go. Veronika Leng of Slovakia caught her on the final climb and the descent off Tai Mo Shan. They crossed the line together in 10:43:35 and shared the win. China's Chi Lingjie was third in 10:52:22.
Qin Guidu won the men's race in 8:52:36, with Meng Guangfu second in 8:58:50 and Deng Guomin third in 9:09:48. Dakota Jones, on his first visit, was fourth in 9:15:49, and John Ray Onifa of the Philippines fifth.
The course was not the full 100 km. Landslides from Tropical Storm Wipha last summer forced a rerouting between roughly 30 and 50 km, so the race ran 93 km with about 5,000 m of climbing, 7 km shorter than usual, along sections of the MacLehose Trail from Sai Kung to a last 4 km drop off Tai Mo Shan. It started at 7 am at around 12 degrees, humid and clear.
In the 50 km, Wang Ruqin won in 3:56:14 and Huang Xuemei in 4:48:12. Qin's win earned 1,500 World Trail Majors points; the series moves to Arizona next.
A tie is not a draw when two people decide it. Ha led for most of the day and Leng made up almost four minutes in the last nine kilometres; either had a case. They chose to finish together, and nobody who watched it argued.
Sources: iRunFar; Trail Running Spain; iRunFar.
