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| KOTH Time trial Race 1 DB |
| Same weekend as the Thaiquain was the first of the 208 KOTH Time Trial events. AVOHK's Koji Miyazaki was victorious. Taking advantage of his home course he none the less worked hard to secure victory, his first in HK and took 4 and a half minutes off of his previous time. |
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| Thaiquain Cup 31st August |
| The Thaiquain Cup marks the season opener, both Stefano Passarello and Li Suet-fei continued to show their winning form. No one was keen to take up the pace on what was a hot and airless day at Pak Tam Chung. Passarello stayed with the pack to the turn around and only made his move around the 6km mark. He finished in 35:49 over one minute ahead of AVOHK's Matthew Jones was second in 36:56 and Choi Tat-ming third in 37:47. Super Vet Keith Chan finished fifth overall and will be a formidable force in his new category M50. AVOHK's William Crowe's won the MV40 in 40.10 and Wong Sai-hing's 40:07 won the MV45.
In the ladies race Li Suet-fei ran on Ada Leong's heels over the early stages before again pulling away to win in 41:13, with a one minute advantage over Ada 42:11. Veteran Grace Chan-Chun-hing 46:00 edged out fellow veteran Kenna Lee Pui-kam 46:21 for overall third place in the ladies race. The ladies 50+ race was won by Wong Yin-yee 49:44 with a substantial margin over AVOHK's Cindy Tsui 54:30. |
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| National Veterans Championships |
STOP PRESS from Bil Purves: The all-China veterans championships has been rescheduled for October 9-13 in Tangshan. Since AVOHK is unable to organize a track championships in Hong Kong, this is effectively your national championships. It’s a track meet, with most of the usual running events up to 10,000m, but no road races. The standard is not out of reach – Catherine Leonard is the defending champion at both 5000m and 10,000m in her age group. Last year, even Edith Ebreo got a medal in the W60s. If you would like to be on the mailing list for more information, contact Bill Purves |
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| A Word From WMA |
Monty Hacker, President of WMA challenges WMA members to actively join in
Fellow WMA members, I must begin by drawing your attention to the loss of two of our former Presidents in the space of just two years, Torsten Carlius (Nov. 2005) and Cesare Beccalli (Dec. 2007) in their late sixties and middle seventies respectively. As we remember their passing we become more and more aware of our need to re-think the composition of our Council. In doing so, we must endeavour to bring onto our Council and committees, younger people willing to give voluntarily of their time and experience to our sport.
That serving on our Council is in many ways a thankless task, should not deter younger people from coming forward to put something back into and serve our sport of masters athletics, which they dearly love. There are many amongst us who are highly critical of the work done by the Council and/or individual members of it. These are the people whom I invite to come forward, put their hands up and volunteer their expertise and advice to our sport at the very coal face. They will be warmly welcomed. I, for one, invite those younger member of our masters community who are willing to serve to meet and discuss with me the contributions they believe they are able and willing to make.
[Tempted? Bill Purves HK's WMA guru can fill you in on what’s involved contact him via AVOHK] |
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| AVOHKers Triumph In UK Trailwalker |
Martin Kennard
AVOHK sent two teams to the UK Trailwalker in the South Downs on July 19 and both emerged victorious. Clive Saffrey led The Wanchai Boys and was accompanied by Alex Morgan, Rob James and Bill Nock. They took a large chunk off the Mens Veterans record and romped home in 11.27. Read Clives report here. The Hong Kong Harriers (Pam Beech, Phil Spencer, Stuart Leonard and Martin Kennard) emerged as the 1st mixed team in a time of 13 hours and 14 minutes. Excellent weather conditions made for an enjoyable race. The course was much more runner friendly than the Hong Kong event and there were murmurs of more record chasing in next year's event. |
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| Brunei Veterans Championships |
A very successful AVOHK team has descended on Brunei for their Veterans Championships, amongst the medalists were Mark Reeves and Grace Wong. As Grace Writes "Saw Brunei on the event calendar and thought this is one country I haven’t visited before. Backed by a lot of nice things Bill Purves said about the organizer, I decided to give it a go.............read more |
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| Consentino And Lee Star In Singapore Sundown Marathon |
Martin Kennard
It is common knowledge that marathon running is a punishing activity which takes it toll on the body. Prominent AVOHK members Philippe Consentino and Freeman Lee decided to raise the bar a little higher though by running in the extreme heat and humidity of Singapore in a race that started at midnight. The time and heat didn't deter the two crackpots though and they finished an incredible 4th and 5th overall in the Singapore Sundown Marathon on May 31. Consentino narrowly edged out his team mate by finishing in a time of 3.21. Lee was just a minute behind.
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| Heat No Deterrent To Galloping Gweilos |
Martin Kennard
The hot and humid weather on July 13 didn't prevent the front runners from putting down some impressive times in the TWAC 10km race. Stefano Passerello provided confirmation that he will be the one to beat next season by winning the race in 33.17. In doing so he recorded the fastest time for 10km this year. Not far behind was Matthew Jones. Matthew's time of 33.38 indicates that he is set for an even better season in 2008/9. Mark Williams' time of 33.46 was faster than the course record that he set three years ago but such was the calibre of the field that he had to be satisfied with third place. |
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| Passerello Seals Weekend Double |
Martin Kennard
Stefano Passerello (pictured above) rounded off a perfect weekend by winning the RRAC 8km race in Ma On Shan on Sunday 11th May. Despite having won the Malcolm Phillips Memorial Race the previous day, the sure footed Italian lead from the start to record a comfortable victory. Passerello has yet to sign up for a club. Clearly, he would make an excellent acquisition for AVOHK. Ancient marathoners Choi Tat Ming and Martin Kennard claimed second and third respectively. Mandy Choy won the Ladies Race. |
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| HKAAA Selection Policy |
| Are you baffled by the HKAAA's selection policy? If you are, you are not alone. Bill Purves sheds new light on their rationale at this link. |
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| Fool's Gold |
Bill Purves
With a mere 39 years left until the demise of the “two systems”, isn’t it time for Hong Kong to abandon its futile pursuit of Olympic medals? The Hong Kong taxpayer is being compelled to spend $120million a year in pursuit of an objective which, beyond senseless, is actually harming the youth on whom the money is spent. Our elite sports system has been disrupted by the conversion of the Sports Institute for the 2008 Olympics. Let’s take this opportunity to dismantle this misguided effort and take a more productive approach to promoting the health of the community. Read more here. |
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| AVOHK Storm Shatin 10k |
| AVOHK made light work of the Shatin Perskindol 10km race on March 9. They claimed first, second and third spots overall to pick up the team prize with over 5 minutes to spare. A brief report on the event can be found here. |
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| Lo and Tse set new benchmarks for HK racewalking |
Martin Kennard
Edward Tse and Alexandra Lo have raised the bar for racewalking in Hong Kong. Tse clocked 48.16 for the mens 10km at Tsuen Wan in March. That performance places him at the top of the HK list for this event. Lo also appeared in the same track meet and put down a time of 55.39 to head up the Women's 10K racewalking table.
The fleet footed pair have also appeared on the international circuit. Tse completed a 20K walk at quite a trot in Japan. His time of 1.36 secures top spot in HK for this event. Alexandra Lo was not to be outdone in Japan and her time of 1.57 means she leads the way in the HK 20K list for women. It is worth noting that these are HK all time records, rather than year on rankings. |
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| WMA Indoor Championships 2008 |
Martin Kennard & Catherine Leonard
Mana Sin, Kitty Chow, Sheila Purves and Captain Bill Purves represented the HK vets in the WMA Indoor Championships in France recently. Skipper Purves claimed 5th place in the 3000m walk. His time, of 16.09, was not a record but it moves him to the top of the Hong Kong Ranking list for this event. More significantly, it places Bill as world number 5 in the M60 age group.
Sheila Purves is pictured enjoying the weather during the mens racewalking.
Up to date and easy to search results for the championships are on this link
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| Wiggs Is Local Hero in CWB Chase |
Martin Kennard
AVOHK member Simon Wiggs may or may not be a fan of the popular British comedy series The League Of Gentlemen but he certainly seems to have taken heed of the fact that it can help a bit if you are local. Wiggs topped the Men's Open category and came a close 2nd overall behind race winner Chan Kah Kwai. Simon is a Clearwater Bay resident and regularly gets to train on the brutal undulating course. Local knowledge meant that Wiggs ran a controlled race to record a personal best in the 10km race. AVOHK's William Crowe came in third overall. Phil Booth - for once without an extra appendage - took advantage of this by claiming top spot in the Men's Veteran class.
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| AVOHKers Score 100% In London |
Staff Reporter
AVOHK scored a one hundred per cent success rate in the London Marathon as all three of its representatives came away with personal bests. Ros Barker secured 60th place in the Women's Elite Race and a very impressive 7th in her age group. Ros' time of 3.00.31 takes a number of minutes off her personal best and places her well up the batting order in the HKAAA rankings. Martin Kennard knocked a couple of minutes off his personal best. Read his race report here. Eight weeks ago 'Ancient Mariner' Richard Wallace was unable to run a kilometre but in London he did 42.2kms in a very tidy time of 3.13.44. He now looks well placed to launch an assault on the Mens Over 50s Trailwalker record in November. Interestingly, this was the first ever marathon in which the top three runners finished in under 2.06. This was despite the fact that the course was 2-3 metres longer, due to some last minute rerouting brought about by a gas leak. |
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| China Ironman |
Martin Kennard
Congratulations to all of those hardy Hong Kongers who took part in the recent Ironman event on Hainan Island. For the uniniated this entails swimming 2.4 miles in the sea, followed by a 200km bike ride and a full marathon. Just to make things a bit harder for contestants, a typhoon ripped through southern China a day before the event leaving behind extremely hot and humid weather conditions. Mark Doel put in a highly respectable debut and finished in 13.26. Ex Hong Kong rugby star and AVOHK member Warren Warner was also taking part in the silliness for the first time. He came away with an excellent time of 12.42 to finish just outside the top 100. |
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| Bees No Barrier To Warrior Jones |
Martin Kennard
It wasn't so long ago that AVOHK's Catherine Leonard was wrestling with a python in Sai Kung Country Park. Club members continue to impress in the face of adversity. This time it was Matthew Jones' turn to do battle with nature in Japan. He took on a swarm of bees whilst running a half marathon and, despite the pain and discomfort caused by the attack, managed to record a time of 1.14. Matthew (pictured taking part) takes up the story here.
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| Your Summer |
Bill Purves
Hot weather is here. Enough of those long, hot workouts on the roads. Time to get back to the track. Here are the overseas track meets Hong Kong veterans will be entering this summer. Each has all the running events up to 5000m, and sometimes 10,000 as well. The Asian Championships has a road race.
Meet Entry Deadline
All-China Veterans Championship September TBC
Johor June 21-22 May 12
Malaysia July 19-20 June 17
Japan Sept. 26-28 July 4
Brunei Aug. 2-3 July 18
Singapore Aug. 24 ?
Taiwan Nov. 15-16 ?
Asia Veterans Championship Dec. 1-6 Aug 21
If you’re over 35, you should be there. (Japan and Brunei welcome women who are over 30 years old.) To get on the mailing list for any of these, contact Bill Purves, shtb AT the i-cable email address. |
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| Malaysia Veterans Championships |
Bill Purves
AVOHK won't be organizing an official Hong Kong team for the Malaysia Veterans Championships this year. We attend this meet every year, but this year it will be held in Perlis, on the Thai border. The city has no airport and no train service, and it's an 8-hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur. I guess that's a bit too difficult.
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| Lai Breaks 2.30 Barrier In Standard Chartered |
A run down on this year's event can be found here. |
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| Greenpower 50km |
Martin Kennard
The popular Greenpower 50km took place on Saturday 1st March. A few hardy AVOHK members rose to the challenge of covering the entirety of the Hong Kong Trial. Koji and his team from DB resisted the temptation to borrow one of the island's ubiquitous golf carts for the event. Instead The DB Runners (pictured above) hot footed it around in an impressive time of 4 hours and 41 minutes. Read the report from AVOHK's Japanese speedster here. Chris Wardlaw is still battling a painful achilles injury but he still managed to get around in 4.55 and win the over 55s category. |
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| Douma Enjoying Success Despite Advancing Years |
| Peter Hopper offers tongue in cheek praise to one of AVOHK's success stories of the season. Read his yarn here. |
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