Iron lung Will Davies pushed the elite field to the limit while Claire Price showed a week before she goes to run the New York marathon that she is the queen of the hills in Hong Kong.

Salomon Lantau 2 Peaks – 20 km trail running race - Hong Kong – Sunday Oct 25, 2009
 
Hong Kong – Mountain runners came out in force for the opening Salomon Lantau 2 Peaks 20 km hill running race with Will Davies putting his lungs up to another level out pacing elite runners Tsang Siu Keung, Jeremy Ritcey and Darren Benson.

“It was very hot, incredibly hilly and technical with huge vertical and I’m just happy to win against these guys who pushed me the entire way” said overall Men’s winner Will Davies completing the punishing 20 km of hills in only 2 hours 30 minutes and 8 seconds.

Past King of the hill winner and elite in every sense of the word “Stone” Tsang Siu Keung tried everything to get past Davies put to no avail and for the first time said to organizers how tough the course was. “It was very hard, difficult, lots of climbing and even though I’ve been doing a lot of training and racing I still couldn’t catch Will as he was just to fast on the downhill”, said Stone grabbing 2nd overall less than 2 minutes behind Davies in 2 hours 32 minutes 05 seconds.

Jeremy Ritcey who was this years King of the hill winner, placed 2nd place in the 78km Wilson race 2 weeks ago with Michael Maddess was probably the happiest on the podium. “It was a fast pace, almost too fast at the beginning, but a beautiful course with huge altitude plus long descents, so I’m just stoked with my time as quite close to these gurus” said 3rd overall Men’s winner Jeremy Ritcey finishing just over 1 minute behind Stone in 2 hours 33 minutes 45 seconds.

Close to 350 registered for the Salomon Lantau 2 Peaks race starting in Tung Chung, running up the Wong Lung Hang valley to one of the longest stair cases in Hong Kong with the main section over 2 km long and reaching near the top of Sunset Peaks 869m (Tai Tung Shan), before descending a punishing stone step case to the Pak Kung Au (331m) then climbing straight back up another punishing 934m Lantau Peak (Fung Wong Shan) being Hong Kongs 2nd highest mountain before a further descent towards the Big Buddha at Ngong Ping at 458m elevation, traversing around Nei Lek Shan contour trail to a cable car tower at 561m before a 5km technical stair descent into Tung Chung putting tremendous stress on the quads, calfs and heals for even the elite field.

Claire Price was the fastest women of the day competing in the mixed team of 2 category with Tim McCosker. “It was tough and I’ve been training very hard for this, but absolutely the wrong kind of training for my New York Marathon next week”, said Price from Team Broken Butts winning in 3 hours 11 minutes 31 seconds who showed she is still the queen of the mountain presently in Hong Kong and if not one of the fastest mountain female runners in Asia.

Overall individual category women’s winner from New Zealand, Guangzhou resident Corrina Turner surprised the field and showed she’s a force to take seriously this year in the hills. “It was the 1st time I raced on this course and wasn’t easy. I loved Sunset Peak and really thought after the Lantau Peak climb it would be easier, but was unforgiving as still more elevation and technical downhill which hammered my legs” said overall individual category women’s winner Turner finishing in 3 hours 34 minutes 43 seconds.

It was a great day out for Valerie lagarde as she grabbed 2nd, won Salomon shoes coupled with her husbands podium performance it was all they could ask for. “I know the course very well as I live close by but was blown away with the views on the last sections as what a treat running the contour of Nei Lek Shan. Good thinking to the organizers” said Lagarde finishing 2nd overall for women in 3 hours 38 minutes and 34 seconds.

Fresh from her Vietnam 90km win 3 weeks ago the legs were still hurting for Tai Fung In was the first to admit that her legs hurt. “The course was very challenging and after Vietnam and overtraining my legs are absolutely aching” said 3rd place overall women Tai Fung In who finished in 3 hours 52 minutes 29 seconds.

Team Ocean with Law Chor Kin and “Mango” Tam Siu Kan won the Men’s team of 2 event in a lightening speed of 3:02:16 who also just competed in another 156km race just 2 weeks ago. Crazy bunch of boys we say.

Team PT Four of Kwok Ka Ming, Lau Man Fui, Cheung Man Cheung & Yan Ka Ho won the Team of 4 event in 3:11:52 setting up a challenging time for next years event.

For the Women's team of 2 the Hot Mamas of Mallette Delariva and Wendy Cooper finished first in 3:52:44 while Mixed Team of 4 Team High D Super of Cheung Shuk Han Carrie, Rockey Lam Lung Wai, Chan Ka Yu Ivan & Patrick Mu took the win in their category in 3:59:41.

For all age group category winners see the results posted as a pdf attachment at the bottom of the Salomon Lantau 2 Peaks Oct 25 09 page under EVENTS on this website.

The series could not happen without Salmon, Citygate Shopping Mall and Watsons Water plus all the staff & volunteers who were up at 4am.

See you all Nov 8 for the off road triathlon at Pui O beach and send us an email if you're looking for a partner or use the forum on this site.