Hong Kong 100K: five out of 11 Canadians finished
Why Canadians decided to DNF and DNS at the Hong Kong Ultra this weekend
On Saturday, January 19 the Vibram Hong Kong 100K took off. The race is known to be a scene of breakout performances, predominantly by mainland Chinese ultrarunners. The men’s race was won by Jiasheng Shen in 10:22:02. Yangchun Lu won the women’s race in 11:43:20.
RELATED: WATCH: China is stoked on trail running
Eleven Canadians toed the line on Saturday for the 100K, and five finished. Quebec’s Mathieu Blanchard was listed as a top male runner to watch in a pre-race report. Blanchard told us he was very impressed by the level of the Chinese runners. He thinks when they begin to race more in Europe and North America “they will be extremely competitive.”
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Canadian Hong Kong 100K male finishers
Lei Tang – 15:15:30
Guojin Xu – 18:59:12
Hon Ming Chan – 28:24:57
Canadian Hong Kong 100K female finishers
Xuefei Chen – 22:35:27
Pui Yee Fanny – 22:59:38
RELATED: Hong Kong 100K men’s champion disqualified
Canadian DNFs
Mathieu Blanchard
Nelson Chau
Joseph Mak
Haiquan Yang
Zingjian Wang
Xing Xiong
Canadian DNSs
Yizhou Jiang
Rachel Sklar
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What happened
There are endless reasons and explanations for why an athlete DNFs (did not finish) or DNS (did not start). For Blanchard, it was an achilles tendon that was challenged by the concrete steps and paths on the course. “You have to come train here to adapt to it and to succeed in such a race.” Since Hong Kong is an early-season race, he decided it was not the best time to “push on it and jeopardize other upcoming races.”
Sklar, who is running 12 Ultra Trail World Tour Races in 12 months in five continents, changed her plans due to her fundraising needs. Although her name was on the entrants list, she had already decided not to race in Hong Kong. Her first race will be Trans Gran Canaria in February.
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