Sham Tseng Mountain Marathon - Sunday, March 3, 2002
Report
| Results
| Splits
Some Top Performances Despite the Heat
Following 2 consecutive years of cool weather, runners faced the annual Sham Tseng hill and trail run on a hot day this year. While most were slowed, a few top athletes amazed.
The Full Marathon
Rob Parks led from beginning to end and decimated the previous course record set by Chan Kwok Keung. Parks was so fast that the race was never in doubt after Tai Mo Shan. The only question was how much time he would take off the record and the answer turned out to be 15 minutes. For someone to run the 38 km course over such hills and rough trails on a hot, humid day in 3:50:40 is truly impressive!
In a performance that was equally amazing, Chiaki Fjelddahl broke the women's course record by over 10 minutes and came in 4th place overall. What made this performance so phenomenal was that Chiaki had run the 50 km Green Power HK Trail Race the day before (winning that race in a nearly identical course record 4:34 as well). Stunning!
Lee Kwok Kwong also grabbed an age category course record, lowering the v-55+ time to 5:25:51. Most other runners struggled with the heat or fatigue from the previous day's HK Trail Race, though Lau Yu Chun, Justin Searle and Ho Hon Ming ran well among the men and Amelia Rendall, Fung Yuk Ling and Melissa Frauenfelder posted good times among the women.
Half Marathon
Brooks Truskett quipped that he was like the Australian who won the short track skating gold medal. Nearly 7 minutes behind John Power at the halfway point, Brooks was stunned to find out that Power had made a wrong turn and that he had won the race. Peter Farbeak was only 2 seconds behind Brooks and was also surprised to learn that he had come in 2nd instead of 3rd, while Jimmy Thompson was delighted with his unexpected 3rd place. Perhaps due to the heat, their times were slow compared to previous years.
The half marathon run of the day came from Michael Cooke who had previously failed twice to run this course well. Today, the 58-year old "Cookie" blazed through in 2:37:04 - not only coming in 4th overall against much younger competition, but also shattering the previous v-55+ course mark.
Philippe Guillo returned from a day of competing in the Raleigh Mountain Marathon to win the v-40 prize easily. Mariette Faber won the women's open ahead of Frances Liu and Grace Miranda won her second consecutive v-40+ mountain half marathon ahead of a rapidly improving Leung Oi Yim.
This wraps up another King of the Hills Mountain Marathon Series. Those who participate know that one of Hong Kong's great attractions is that we have the best trail running of any major city in the world. The annual awards dinner will be held on Thursday, March 14th. See www.seyonasia.com for further details.
Results - Full Marathon
Male Open: 1) Rob Parks, 3:50:40; 2) Lau Yu chun, 4:20:34; 3) Justin Searle, 4:34:25
Male Veteran: 1) Ho Hon Ming, 4:27:16; 2) Chan Kwok Keung, 4:49:17; 3) Hui Hok Fong, 4:54:20
Male Senior: 1) Lee Kwok Kwong, 5:25:51; 2) Lui Kwok Sing, 5:49:57; 3) Wong Pak Kun, 5:59:23
Ladies Open: 1) Chiaki Fjelddahl, 4:34:40; 2) Amelia Rendall, 5:21:35, 3) Melissa Frauenfelder, 5:38:14
Ladies Veteran: 1) Fung Yuk Ling, 5:28:22; 2) Yau Lan Kiu, 6:44:26
Results - Half Marathon
Male Open: 1) Brooks Truskkett, 2:26:58; 2) Peter Farbeak, 2:27:00; 3) Jimmy Thompson, 2:31:18
Male Veteran: 1) Philippe Guillo, 2:38:49; 2) Dirk Long, 2:46:28; 3) Neil Thomason, 2:53:00
Male Senior: 1) Michael Cooke, 2:37:04; 2) Peter Widmer, 2:2:53:32; 3) John Morris, 3:14:05
Ladies Open: 1) Mariette Faber, 2:59:22; 2) Frances Liu, 3:14:14; 3) Jacque Andersen, 3:19:02
Ladies Veteran: 1) Grace Miranda, 3:17:50; 2) Leung Oi Yim, 3:45:59
Keith Noyes
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