Hong Kong banker Michel Lowy on the comeback trail after cheating death in storm-lashed Lantau peaks race a year ago
Belgian co-founder and CEO of boutique investment bank was left fearing he’d be paralysed - if he survived at all - following horror slip. He talks about his return to racing and his changed perspective
The seemingly simple fact that Michel Lowy was able to be interviewed for this article is actually a miracle. Even more amazing: following his brush with death last year after a nasty fall during a trail running race, the 46-year-old Belgian recently teamed up with three colleagues to finish second in the corporate category of the Barclays Moontrekker Moonlit 30km trail race on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island.
Yet a little more than a year ago, Lowy, CEO and co-founder of boutique investment bank SC Lowy, was lying heels over head on a steep mountainside in Lantau, head and upper body wedged between two trees, unable to move. The Brussels native had been competing in the 2015 Action Asia Lantau 2 Peaks race in the face of an approaching typhoon, and with the No.3 strong wind signal hoisted.
Amid gale-force winds and heavy rain, about 3 ½ hours into the 23km trail race seasoned runner Lowy slipped off the wooden steps of the Ngong Ping 360 Rescue Trail and landed head-first, falling seven to eight metres. He passed out – he reckons for a few minutes – and when he came to, he had a “crazy pain” in his neck and could not move his limbs.
“The first thought for me was: ‘I am never going to be able to run, walk and play with my kids again because of this stupid race’,” says Lowy, a father-of-two who has been living in Hong Kong for 11 years.
A few runners stopped to help Lowy and two Dutch competitors stayed with him until a rescue team came. It took a 12-man Hong Kong emergency crew two hours to reach Lowy and another two hours to free him. Then, carrying the casualty on a stretcher, they hiked back up to Ngong Ping, where an ambulance was waiting.
