The monthly AVOHK social run was held on Wed, 5th July. As usual practice, the group meets at HSBC Hopewell center and run ~8km run to enjoy a few refreshments afterwards.
Pictures before and after below.
For those interested to join the social run: The AVOHK social runs are held monthly, every first Wednesday of the month at 19:00 – Hopewell Center, Wanchai (in front of HSBC ATM, Queen’s Road East).
For further details, please contact Frank Riehm on 9423 5422
2023 AVOHK Annual General Meeting
The Club had a good turnout of members at the AGM on Thursday, 8 June 2023. Thank you
to those members that attended at Museum Café (formerly, Café 8). There is an article
about the AGM in the newsletter. I would like to, on behalf of all the members, thank the
outgoing AVOHK Chair, Elaine Hall, for the great job Elaine did in leading the Club through
the last 2 years and keeping us all together. Congratulations to Glory Yau on being presented
with AVOHK Female Athlete of the Year and Aldo Kriel on being presented with AVOHK Male
Athlete of the Year. Both very well deserved. The following members of the AVOHK
Committee were voted in: https://avohk.org/index.php/avohk-committee/
Committee
The new committee will gather for their first meeting on Monday, 26 June 2023. A date for
the diary, AVOHK are planning to launch the first AVOHK 5K Series in four years on Saturday,
9 September 2023, on Bowen Road. More details to follow. A big thank you to Freeman Lee
who is again the AVOHK 5K Series Race Director.
Swimming
Congratulations to Andrew Waters who was 2nd in the M45 100m freestyle at the long
course Hong Kong masters swimming meet held recently. Hopefully, more medals from the
swimming group at future masters meets.
Newsletter
Please do take time to read the newsletter, there are some very interesting articles. The next
AVOHK Social Run will take place at 7pm on Wednesday, 5 July 2023. Meeting at HSBC ATM
at the Hopewell Centre.
The 2023 AGM was held at Museum Café (Previously known as Café 8) on 8th June. The meeting was well attended and it was a great opportunity to catch up with some old faces, and get to know some new ones!
One of the main purposes of the meeting was to elect the General Committee for 2023/24. Thank you to Colin Whittington for stepping up as Chair for this year, and Aldo Kriel who will serve as Vice-chair. Nigel Raymont will continue as treasurer and Frank Riehm, who has come to the end of his 5 year term as Membership Secretary, will become our new Secretary. Freeman Lee will take over from Frank as Membership Secretary. Catherine Leonard and Mike Capper will be joining the general committee. They both bring a wealth of experience from many years in the Hong Kong running community.
I would like to say thank you to David Woo, who has done an excellent job as Secretary for the last 4 years. We are also saying goodbye to Derek Irwin, who will be leaving Hong Kong after many, many years. Derek has served on the AVOHK committee, co-directed The Malcolm Phillips 5K, and will be a familiar face to all those who have run in AVOHK races over the years. We wish him all the best on his new adventure!
It was lovely to have our previous Athletes of the Year, John Fowler and Evelyn Lim, present the trophies to this year’s winners. Aldo Kriel and Glory Yau, two of our track speedsters, were the deserving recipients.
Jeff Cheung
As an amateur runner with a marathon personal best of 2:52, I have always wanted to challenge myself with track racing. When a local 10000m event was announced, I signed up despite inconsistent training, knowing the competition would be stiff.
With a 10km best of 36 minutes, my form was not ideal. I knew I couldn’t keep pace with the elites, and would struggle to maintain speed and endurance.
I started conservatively, aiming to last 40 minutes without walking. My legs got tired quickly but I persevered. As the front-runners raced off, I focused on pacing and rhythm.
Though unable to break my personal best, completing the race within 40 minutes was a proud progress. I finished in the bottom quarter, clocking 38:45—disappointing—given my history, but a reminder of my capability.
This experience, despite falling short of expectations, inspired me. It highlighted my limits yet resilience. The difficult run motivates harder training and a continued journey of pursuit in a running career now long, yet only just beginning.
Though already 40, with dedicated work I can still achieve more. My first 10000m may bring speed and stamina disappointment, yet satisfaction in lessons learned, and motivation for progress ahead.
Connie Fong
On April Fool’s Day morning, I took part in the 10000m race which was held at Wan Chai Sportsground. It was a special experience for a road runner.
Is a 10000m track race the same as a 10K road race? All athletes have to run 25 laps of a 400m track. The shoe regulations are very different, only spikes or shoes with a 25mm height are allowed. I ran the race with non-spike shoes.
It was not easy for a road runner to run on the track. There were lots of repetitions of straights and curves, again and again. The skills are different from on the road. For me, it was difficult to repeat so many laps. Usually, I practice running on the road so it was a bit challenging for me to do repeating laps and keep up the concentration for the whole race.
I enjoyed the race and treasure this experience. Thank you to AVOHK for getting my entry.
Malcolm Phillips 5k Age Graded Race
Thank you to all of the runners who braved the extreme temperatures on Saturday, 20 May, to race the Malcolm Phillips 5k. It was lovely to catch up with all the AVOHK regulars, as well as lots of new faces.
Congratulations to our age-graded winners, Helen Leung (age-graded time of 20:54.2) and Michael Capper (age-graded time of 15:58.6).
A huge thank you too to our team of volunteers. Without their help, we would never be able to hold these races.
Asia-Pacific Masters Games, Korea
Hong Kong had some great results at the Asia-Pacific Masters Games in Korea earlier this month. Special mention must go to our own AVOHK athletes, Glory Yau Tsui-fan and Caren Lau Hoi-lam. Glory Yau won gold in all three of the W45+ sprints, setting new Games’ records in the 100m, 200m and 400m! Caren Lau won the W40+ pentathlon and long jump. Well done to both!
Elaine Hall
Chair, AVOHK
Hong Kong’s hot and steamy summer weather welcomed back the 16th Big Mal 5K race on Bowen Road for the first time after the covid years in a real rather than virtual event. Congratulations to the 83 runners who took part and congratulations to the six winners of prizes in this age adjusted race:
In the ladies field:
1. Helen Leung
2. Gillian Castka
3. Catherine Leonard
In the men’s field:
1. Michael Capper,
2. Kwok Wing Sing,
3. Cheung Wai Lap
Also a big well done to David Woo who was first across the line and Yoona Min, the fastest lady. A big thank you to all who took part. We hope it was an enjoyable day for you. Also a big thank you to the crucial and very important volunteers who helped make it all happen.
All the results on the links below
The Malcolm Phillips Age-Graded 5k 2023
The race is now open for entry. It will once again be held on the flat, fast Bowen Road course and all finish times will be age-graded, so it’s a great way to track your performance across the years. For full details of the race to happen on Saturday, 20th May, and to enter, please visit www.avohk.org
AGM and Sports Nutrition Presentation
The AVOHK AGM 2023 will be held at Café 8 in Central at 7pm on Thursday, 8th June.
The meeting will be followed by a buffet meal, and we are also delighted to host a presentation about Sports Nutrition by Lisa Tarquini. A UK-registered nutritionist with an MSc in Exercise and Nutrition Science, Lisa has had a long career working with athletes of all levels. She was Sport Nutrition Manager at the Hong Kong Sports Institute for 6 years and, during that time, she worked closely with athletes on their journey to Asian Games and Olympic success. Lisa will be giving a presentation about sports nutrition and she will be happy to address any questions which runners may have.
Full notice of the AGM, along with proxy and nomination forms will be sent out to Club members this week.
Elaine Hall
Chair
CLOSED FOR ENTRY!
The Malcolm Phillips Age-Graded 5K will be held on Saturday, 20th May at 4pm. The start will be on Bowen Road, at the junction with Bowen Drive and, as in previous years, all results will be graded according to the Age Grade Factor tables at www.world-masters-athletics.com
Open to runners aged 12 years – 112 years+ on 20th May!
What will I receive?
For more details and to enter, see the link below.
In the event of a red or black rainstorm or T8 being issued by 12 noon on race day, the event will be cancelled. We will attempt to reschedule but there will be no entry fee refund.
Enquiries to bigmalavohk@gmail.com
On Monday 10th April, Nova Athletics hosted the Sha Tin Easter Grand Prix athletics meet at Ma On Shan sports ground. The event was split into two days, with younger runners competing on day one in Wan Chai, while the age graded Masters battled it out at the Ma On Shan sports ground on Day 2. The event was very well organized and featured electronic times (inside and outside of the track), in addition to the stadium-provided electronic timing system.
Two AVOHK members who recently returned from Torun Poland from the World Masters Athletic Championships Indoor, took part in the Easter Grand Prix event, each breaking 3x Hong Kong age category records. Glory YAU, a W45 sprinter broke records in the 60m, 100m and 400m respectively. Aldo KRIEL an M40 sprinter, broke the 60m, 100m and 200m outdoor records.
YAU ran the 60m in an impressive time of 8.64s, breaking the previous W45 record of 10.62s by a significant margin. She also set a new record in the 100m, finishing with a time of 13.79s and breaking the previous record of 13.97s. YAU’s final record-breaking performance came in the 400m event, where she broke her own record previously set in Japan in 2019, finishing in a time of 1:07.8, improving her previous W45 Hong Kong record of 1:09.73s.
KRIEL ran the 60m in an impressive time of 7.14s, breaking the previous M40 Hong Kong record of 7.8s – this was also a personal best for him in the 60m, and marginally faster than the 7.40s he ran indoors in Torun, Poland. He also set a new record in the 100m, finishing with a time of 11.22s and breaking the previous record of 11.55s which has stood since 2014. KRIEL ran a world class indoor 200m in Poland of 23.74s, placing him 21st in the world masters ranking in the M40 category this year. On Monday 10 April, he improved on this time and ran an impressive 23.31s, breaking the previous Hong Kong M40 record of 23.77s set in 2018.
Both YAU and KRIEL were crowned overall champions in their respective age categories of W45 and M40 at the Easter Grand Prix.
Congratulations to both Glory and Aldo and good luck with upcoming races.
