Oxfam Trailwalker: Hong Kong’s fantastic 4 aiming to shatter race record as event returns for first time since 2018
- After civil unrest and Covid restrictions the 100km challenge is back this month, albeit with a smaller field
- Team including OTW veteran Wong Ho-chung set themselves target of 11 hrs 30 mins for race
After civil unrest in 2019 and three years of Covid restrictions the Oxfam Trailwalker is back with a vengeance this year, taking place twice in the space of 10 months.
A reduced 400-team event in two weeks time will be followed by one three times the size in November as Hong Kong finally gets back to normal.
Organisers had just four months to put the first race together after finally getting permission from the government, and Michael Wong Ho-ming, the charity’s director of fundraising and communications in the city, said it would be viewed as a warm-up.
“We only have four months to make it happen, so it is in a small scale and we treat it as a warm-up for the full-size event in November, where we expect to have more than 1,300 teams,” he said.
The first event will take place between February 24 and 26, with around 1,600 competitors getting 48 hours to cover the distance between Pak Tam Chung in Sai Kung to Po Leung Kuk Jockey Club Tai Tong Holiday Camp in Yuen Long.
Among that group will be a team led by Hong Kong’s top ultra-runner, Wong Ho-chung, who have their sights set on beating the course record of 11 hours and 58 minutes set by the S53 2XU UFO team in 2016.
