January
14
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Hong Kong 100 kicks off Ultra trail world Tour 2017. Winners Nuria Picas and Yun Quiao. Race report, results and photos.
The Ultra Trail World Tour 2017 is on! The Vibram Hong Kong 100 was its kick-off today. The city of hills was once again the center of the ultra trail world, with an outstanding cast of front runners, despite running in January. Among the favorites were Nuria Picas, Javi Domínguez and Silvia Trigueros along with Lisa Borzani, Sage Canaday, Tim Tollefson, David Laney and local runners such as Yun Quiao or Linim Meng.
Our correspondent in Asia, Daniel Perez, brought us live images of the press and exit press before launching himself on to the race, which he finished among the top50 and will later issue his personal report as a popular runner. Now, let us go with the elite race report, results and pictures, with champions Yun Quiao and a great Nuria Picas, who set a new CR 40 minutes below the previous one, despite running in leased gear.
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VIBRAM HONG KONG 100: RACE REPORT, RESULTS AND PHOTOS
By Mayayo (@moxigeno)
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The race (100k / D + 4500m): The race started at 8AM local time on Saturday, 14 January (1AM this morning in Spain) and had a deadline of 30 hours for the pelotón. The start was staged in four groups, with runners being launched every five minutes, according to their goal times: 8.00am Elite. (Sub16h goal); 8.05 am (Sub20h goal); 8.10am (Sub 24h goal); 8.15am (Under 30h goal)
The route crosses Hong Kong by the North, from East to West. With a profile of 4,500m of positive gradient, the route has two clearly differentiated parts.
- The first part up to check point 4 is a very, very technical and very fast running part, crossing the Sai kung area to Yung shue O at kilometer 45.
- From there on, the real race beings with 55 km with 3,500m of positive gradient and many, many stairs, to reach the highest peak of Hong Kong, Tai Mo Shan with 957m. Once there, only the last 4 km of descent remain a home strech, where the 2016 race was decided.
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Race report 2017: The start of the race, saw three of the top names not present as spaniard Jordi Gamito (top5 in the past here) and former HK100 champions Yan Long Fei (2014) and Dong Li (2016) were not able to make the start line. Yet, the elite group was still quite relevant as proven in the press conference before the race.
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In addition to Spaniards Nuria Picas, Javi Domínguez and Silvia Trigueros, in the men’s field we had internationally reputed names like Didrik Hermansen, David Laney, Sage Canaday, Tim Tollefson and in the feminine were Wynn Chow winner in 2014, the Italian Liza Borzani or New Zealand Marie Mcnaughton, plus many talented locals, as is now common in all Asian races.
At the start, the anecdote was Nuria Picas loss of race gear due to a leaving out at the taxi, which brought us a few minutes of tension, although she was able to be retrofitted on time thanks to the help of other runners, both for her head Buff and a racing backpack, a Raidlight Responsiv leased by ultrarunner Juri Chao from Singapore who was working today with the organization. And quite a lucky charm for her it would prove to be.
Once the start was given, the first half passed as expected with alternatives at the head and great rhythms. Both men and women were cutting on time of the previous year’s race records. While the women were led by Linming Chen, Spaniards Nuria and Silvia were among the top5 with the catalan always in second place, while the basque was fighting with Lisa Borzani for 5-6.
Among the male field, Yun Hui Yu led the firs checkpoint with Sangé Sherpa second and the main favorites like Sage Canaday, Tim Tollefson, Seth Swanson, Didrik Hermansen or Daniel Jung all keeping in close contact. The main exception in those first km was Javi Domínguez. The basque runner was clearly not on his favorite turf racing over such a smooth, short and fast ultra trail and let go of the head from the start, while following his own rhytm around the top 20 to the passage of the half rac emark.
Along the second half of the race chinese Yun Quiao, previous winner here in 2013 and recent winner lasy year at Gobi´s deser Ridge 70k over D´Haene made his move and took the lead before reaching Beacon Hill, as did Nuria Picas among the women. From then on both went on to break out ahead progressively and would not be worried until crossing the finish line way ahead of their rivals
For Nuria, the only concern came from Linming Chen who marched in the final stages about 20 minutes behind while Buff’s runner kept winning overall positions, going from the top40 of the first half to fighting for the top20 in the second stretch.
At the finish line, crowds cheered for Yun Quiao, achieving his second victory in this HK100 after winning in 2013. He won with authority on a mark of 9:35, yet he did not beat the 9:32 set by François d’Haene in 2016. However, the second runner to arrive took almost half an hour more than Yun.
The podium was finally completed by Daniel Jung, coming in second with 10:02 and Sage Canaday third with 10:04. The rest of the top 10 went for Didrik Hermansen fourth at 10h13, Tim Tollefson fifth at 10h14; Sixth Seth Swanson with 10h17; Seventh Jay P from Thailand at 10.24; Eighth Hayy Jones at 10h27; Ninth Jiagen Jan with 10h30 and tenth Julien Chorier with 10h43. Javi Domínguez would finally be the first Spaniard at the finish line, making 15th with 10h54 and fighting until the end in a race that was not his style.
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Among the women, Nuria Picas achieved a great victory with 11h18. New course record and top20 overall for her. Thus she is off to a great start for a third Ulta Trail World Tour title, after winning it in 2014 and 2015. The coruse record was brought down by 40 minutes. This were her time-splits stretch by stretch.
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The second runner was Linming Chen with 11h43, almost 35 minutes off the champion. Finally, the podium was complete with Marie McNaughton from New Zealand coming in with 12:27.
Here you have as well full detail for the top10 women’s today.
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From a spanish perspective, the highlight was Silvia Trigueros crossing the line in 7th place after 13h31 in a race whose short and fast style, like it happened Javi Domínguez, is not well suited to a UTMB and Tor des Geants top5 veteran. In any case, valuable points were added by both here as they take on the long circuit that started here today and which will also pass through Spain twice, first in Transgrancanaria and then in Penyagolosa.
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MORE ON TRAIL RUNNING: TOP RACES, RUNNERS, GEAR AND MORE.
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- Carrerasdemontana.com offers the best trail info in spanish, since 2007.
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Info by Mayayo Oxígeno for Trailrunningspain
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