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01 Jan, 1970

Gray wins VK - forgets to eat in 50 - Kremer & Yan take 50 title - Li nails 88

KREMER AND YAN CLINCH THE MSIG LANTAU 50K - Li takes 88

The MSIG Lantau 50 started at Man Tung Road Park in Tung Chung with cool temperatures welcoming runners on the 7th of December. The newly added 88k race started at midnight, followed by the 50k race at 7am and followed by the13k and 25k at 8am.

The winner of the Skyrunning  World championship Stevie Kremer won the women's 50k race in 6 hours 6 minutes 51 seconds.'I think it's super technical. This is my first 50k so I can't compare this to others. Very challenging, it's a mixture of running and hiking. Would definitely recommend Action Asia Events races to my running partners and would love to come to Hong Kong again.' Said Salomon USA runner Kremer.."Maybe not technical wise, but mentally that hill when we got to the Vertical section behind Lantau Peak, I knew you told me about it, but I wasn't prepared to do a Vertical KM right in the middle of a 50km race with only 20k left as I think mentally that was the most challenging thing I had to battle thru during the day. The scenery was just beautiful. Even though it was a little overcast, it was incredible everything we saw. You know there were parts of me that said stop and take a picture but you know I'm way too competitive for anything like that. Those 2 ladies Mira and Ruth are definately super strong. At one point they were both ahead of me, not at thesame time, but it was a tough race and a close race and it wasn't easily won by any means. The first cp at Ngong Ping at the top of the first hill got by Mira who is so fast on the uphills, then at the 2nd cp near the out West on Lantau by Keung Shan ahead Ruth and wanted to finish strong but was concerned the whole way. It's a shame Asia is so far away from my friends as they would love this course as I think the mountains here are beautiful, there is so much to see. I love how the mountains dip into the ocean and water as it's incredible as you don't have that everywhere as it's just a beautiful unique place that you can run into the mountains that is so different than racing in land locked places like the US or in Europe" finished MSIG Lantau 50 overall Women winner Kremer.

Yan Longfei from China sponsor edit by Salomon and Red Bull came 1st in the 50 km race, finishing in 5hours 24minutes and 13seconds. 'Being able to compete with strong runners is one of the most exciting things to do in my life. We have elite runners coming from Australia, the United States, Nepal etc. competing in the MSIG 50k on Lantau making it a great race. The section between Shek Pik and Pak Kung Au is the most technical part. I used my hands to balance myself throughout the trail. There was a fierce competition with Joe Gray along the race and I was lucky enough to take over him in Shek Pik. It's such a coincidence that today is also my birthday, so this trophy definitely is my best birthday gift.' said Yan.

Joe Gray who won the Lantau VK just 2 days earlier made it to the last checkpoint in the 50k, but was finished with saying "just didn't have enough nutrition in me as should have ate more as that is one of the toughest 50k course in the world with out doubt and I should have definately ate more" said Scott USA runner Gray. He continued, "This would have been my first Skyrunning ultra. Definitely quite a challenge that you definitely want to be trained for and have it under your legs. I think coming from the road season I came in from not enough aerobic capacity to run 50km of this type of running. You can’t really fake it. It’s easy to run undulating 50k, but this one you have a Vertical K in the middle there and it’s technical and it’s not like you’re going to run, I mean if you were fresh and we did that same Vertical K I think you would be hard pressed to run under 35 on that, which is, well not fast and that speaks volumes to this tough, technical, there’s a lot of shrubbery, there’s a lot of hands on the ground, hands on your knees, so, yeah I would say this was one of the tougher courses, you know I dropped today, but I would imagine most people would say that’s one of the toughest 50k’s out there. Possibly in the world. Out of the big, you know this is a big race, up and coming, out of the big ones,  that are competitive it has to be rivaling with them. Some people think Speedgoat is one of the toughest, I've ran many sections on that course and some people might disagree with me, but if they come to Hong Kong and run this 50, they will find out, this is tougher and more technical than Speedgoat. Granted there are some courses out there in the world that are super technical, super slow, but no one goes. But the ones that are competitive like this one, I mean this is closer to a 100k time, you know you’re running over quite a bit over 5 hours and that would be considered quite good (around 5) with the elites running over 5 hours so, yeah. I definitely packed a bit too light, that would be the biggest piece of advice I can give is to make sure you bring enough nutrition with you. I guess I underestimated the course a little bit. I didn’t realize how long it would take between check points. Huge mistake. Rookie mistake. One that I won’t make next time. Most definitely will be back. Unfinished business" said the Scott Runner Joe Gray.

 A 23 years old Nepalese runner Mira Rai, who broke the Women's MSIG Lantau VK record in 48 minutes 32 seconds placed second in women's MSIG Lantau 50 50k race. 'Thank you Michael, thank you Action Asia Events. The course was well marked. The view up there was fantastic. The uphill session was really technical. Thank you for organizing such a great race.' Said Rai, who finished in 6 hours 14 minutes 25 seconds.

Another Chinese runner You Peiquan placed second in men's 50k race doing China proud. 'The second half is very technical, I was running out of energy bars. Physically I wasn’t the best today. Will definitely be more prepared next time to break my personal record.' You Peiquan finished the course in 6hours 5 minutes and 42 seconds.

The third female runner went to Ruth Croft. ‘The last 20km was the toughest. Just put one foot in front of the other. The scenery up there was so beautiful, but I was too tired to enjoy it. For the first 10k I was pretty slow, there were lots of hilly terrains which I didn't expect to be so challenging.’ Croft finished the race in 6 hours 40 minutes and 30 seconds.

The third place in the Men’s 50km went to John Ellis, finishing in 6 hours 30minutes and 19seconds. 'The most difficult 50k that I have done. I didn't expect to have a vertical kilometer trail in the race. That was extremely energy consuming.' Said Ellis.

Dong Li who finished 2nd at the MSIG VK race on Friday night went one better clinching the title in 14hours 5minutes and 47seconds and came first overall in the 88k race. 'This is my first time joining a trail running race that started at midnight. I didn't have enough sleep last night due to lack of experience and I threw up a few times during the race. It was really, really dark up on the hill at first and I couldn't see much. Was following another runner at the beginning and ran past him at sunrise’, Said Li.
 
The winner in the Men’s 25km goes to Daniel Perez Fernandez from Spain, who finished in 3hours 11minutes and 19 seconds. 'I work in Shenzhen and so I trained mostly in Shenzhen. However I often sign up trail running races in Hong Kong. I raced in the Lantau 2 peaks before. The course is was very tough today. The weather made it very very slippery. The last downhill was very technical.' Said Fernandez.

Grabbing the overall champion in the 25km Women’s was Joanne brown from Canada. 'The course today was challenging, especially running through sunset peak. Brown finished the course in 4hours 10minutes and 26seconds.

Hungarian Levente Koczka just had his first trail running race today and grabbed the overall champion in the 13k race, finishing in 1hour 36minutes 58seconds. 'Came here last weekend and did a pre-race myself. So I had an idea of what the course was like. The scenery out there was beautiful, I was able to see Tung Chung and the other side of the island.' Said Koczka.

Annabel Arthur finished in 1hour 54minutes and 47seconds grabbed the champion in women's 13k category. 'The weather was lovely, wasn't too hot. The view was gorgeous. Downhill had a lot of steps which was a bit dangerous as it’s so slippery.' Said Arthur.

The MSIG Lantau 50 & VK could not have happened without the support of MSIG Insurance (Hong Kong) Limited, the ActionX Store, OtterBox, Bonaqua, Salomon, Key Sun Zinke, Skins, Herbalgy, Salonpas, Oregon Scientific, Oldham Li & Nie Lawyers, the China Skyrunning Association, Pearl’s, AroundDB and the Action Asia Foundation.

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