Masters Track&Field

46 (29 men and 17 women) Hong Kong Masters athletes made the 2 hour flight from Hong Kong to Clark to compete in the 22^nd Asia Masters Athletics Championships hosted by the Philippines and held in New Clark City, from 8^th to 12^th Nov 2023.  Within the Hong Kong Masters team there were 12 AVOHK Club Members.  There were 3 venues all close by with the main stadium being of international standard.  The Hong Kong team came away with an amazing 42 medals ( 13 Gold, 18 Silver and 11 Bronze) with the team finishing 13^th out of 22 countries in the overall medal table.  AVOHK athletes contributed to this total:

M55 – Mike Capper – Silver 10K Road

M50 – Mick Wong – 4 Silvers (200m, 400m, 4 x 100m relay and 4 x 400m relay)

M50 – Israel Valcarcel – Silver 800m

W45 – Glory Yau  – 2 Silvers (200m & 400m) and 1 Bronze 100m

M45 – Chan Siu Hin – Bronze 10K Road

M40 – Aldo Kriel – Silver 4 x 100m Relay

Within the overall Hong Kong Masters team there were many stunning performances, to highlight a few.  3 Gold Medals each for M55 Pancy Chu and M60 Willy Kung, 2 Gold medals each for W70 Wendy Choi, W65 Catherine Kwan, M65 Jackie Ho, W60 Lai Yin Mei and M60 Alex Yip.  The relays on the final day were really the icing on the cake.  Hong Kong were entered in 7 team relays and came away with medals in 5 of these.

Gold M60 – 4 x100m

Gold W55 – 4 x100m

Silver M40 – 4 x 100m

Silver M50 – 4 x100m

Silver M50 – 4 x 400m

Great relay team management and selection by Ceci Tse and Therry Wong.  After the M50 4x400m relay the team literally left the track and headed for Clark Airport for the 6.30pm flight back to Hong Kong. Such was the quality of opposition the M50 Japan team set a World Age Group record in the M50 4x100m in 44.43s (Hong Kong were 2^nd).  A number of new Hong Kong Masters age group records were set and an update on these will appear in the next AVOHK newsletter.  Ever present at these championships and always cheering the team on was Hong Kong Masters athlete and legend, Bill Purves.

Well done to the Hong Kong Masters team on a great performance at the 22^nd Asia Masters Athletic Championships.  Further details can be found here https://amacphilippines2023.com/at/medals

The 2025 Asia Masters Athletics Championships will be held at Solo, Indonesia.

Hong Kong had a team of 7 at the Malaysia veterans’ championships September 16 & 17, and they brought home 12 medals: 5 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze. The Malaysians attracted about 500 athletes from 12 countries. It was the usual Malaysian setup: hot all day with a tropical downpour in the late afternoon, no pork and expensive beer. This was the 35th revival of the championships.

Mick Wong was our star performer with gold in the 100, 200 and 400. Aldo Kriel was surprised to be beaten into second in the 100m but revenged himself on the same opponent by winning the 200. Shirley Wong brought home silvers in the same two events. Dominic Wong is in Mick’s M50 category, so he could earn only a silver in the 400, but he came back with an impressive win in the 100 hurdles, beating the second-place finisher by fully two barriers. Our other medallist was yet another Wong: Wong Kee-lam, who took bronze in the 100, 200 and javelin throw.

Hong Kong had a team of 7 at the Malaysia veterans’ championships September 16 & 17, and they brought home 12 medals: 5 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze. The Malaysians attracted about 500 athletes from 12 countries. It was the usual Malaysian setup: hot all day with a tropical downpour in the late afternoon, no pork and expensive beer. This was the 35th revival of the championships, and it set a record by being the first to provide toilet paper in the washrooms. Everything looked well-prepared on Friday before the meet, but on Saturday morning one of the two sets of washrooms was locked. It was the set near where the stadium staff have their offices and pantry. The remaining set were insufficient for 500 athletes and we were directed to a set of latrines in an adjacent field.

Shirley opened our account with silver in the 100 on Saturday morning. She was closing fast on the winner at the line, but just couldn’t get there. The same opponent did it to her again in the 200 on Sunday morning when she finished one step behind and again had to settle for the silver medal.

Mick and Aldo both had timed finals in their 100m races. Each won his section easily, but when the section results were merged Mick had won but Aldo was edged into second by a policeman from India. Aldo vowed revenge, which he took on Sunday when he and the copper were drawn in the same section of the 200 with Aldo in lane 8 and the flatfoot in 2. Aldo beat him relatively easily. Unfortunately, Constable Plod won’t be in Manila for a rematch.

Wong Kee-lam is now living in KL, but he says it’s only temporary. He’s studying comparative religion. In Malaysia everything will be compared with Islam, so don’t offer him char siu. This was Phoebe Kriel’s return to competition after leading her Phoebe’s Phast Pheet team (Phoebe, Aldo and their two kids) in the family relay at the Thai championships several years ago. She didn’t win a medal, but it was she who selected the restaurant for the memorable crab feast on Saturday evening that was our team dinner.

There seems to be some dissention in Singapore. Unusually, they had two teams in KL: the usual Singapore team led by AMA Secretary Kannan and a Singapore Track and Field Association team organised by Jason Wong. There were two veterans’ meets in Singapore this year, so someone seems dissatisfied with Kannan’s decades-long stewardship.

No dissention on our team. On to Japan!

Bill Purves
(Full version in AVOHK Newsletter)

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.

The Hong Masters Track and Field event is back this year and will be hosted over two weekends 27/Nov/2022 and 4/Dec/2022 at the Tin Shui Wai Sports Ground.

For more details see this link.

to Enter, please follow this link or the form below. Please ensure payment is made and proof of payment is sent as per the details on the form.

AVOHK will submit a few relay teams, please indicate if you would like to be included in any relays.

Day 4 – 2nd July at the World Masters Athletics in Tampere Finland saw Willie Kung bag a bronze medal for Hong Kong  in the M60 Long Jump. Fantastic achievement by Willie.  In the W40 200m heats Grace Tong broke the Hong Kong  age group record in 30.36 secs. Way to go Grace!

In the M40 200m heats good solid performance by Charles Wong in his first World Masters Athletics Championships, gaining valuable experience. Jackie Ho was seeded in the A final of the M60 5,000 and ran a very quick 19 mins 39 sec for an overall placing of 14th out of 27 runners.  Great result by Jackie.  Jackie still has the M60 1,500 metres and M60 Half Marathon later in the week.

Peter Lam M55 rested his sore hamstring and gave the 200m a miss to concentrate on the 400m. Today Day 5 no Hong Kong athletes competing.  

Note: Mon 4th July is a rest day for all athletes whilst the WMA general assembly takes place. 

You can watch Day 5 events in the main stadium live.  Mainly 200 semi and final and Javelin.  Starts at 2.30pm hkt.

Results and schedule 

Results

Hong Kong have 6 masters athletes competing in the 2022 World Masters Athletic Championships being held in Tampere, Finland 29th June to 10th July.

In the first 3 days Charles Wong had a PB in the M40 100m.  Peter Lam had a great run in the M55 100m heats and made it to the Semi finals.  Narrowly missing a place in the final. Jackie Ho ran a very gutsy M60 800m heat knocking over 10 secs off his PB.

Big day coming on Day 4 – Sat 2nd July 2022.  With Grace Tong in the W40 200m heats, Peter Lam M55 200m heats, Jackie Ho in M60 5,000m and Willie Kung in M60 Long Jump.

Later in the week Mike Powell the current World Long Jump record holder (8.95m) competes in the M55 Long Jump.

More information can be found here :   https://wmatampere2022.com/

Events in the main stadium are being shown live on YouTube .  Day 4 – 2nd

From a very warm Finland, land of the midnight sun.

The 2022 World Masters Athletics Championships will be held in Tampere, Finland from June 29 – July 10.  

Hong Kong has a long and successful history at these events and it would be great if we could send a team again this year.  With quarantine rules relaxing slightly, some of our runners may be able to considering travelling to Europe this summer.  

If you are keen to race, or have any queries, please contact Bill Purves at billpurves@alum.mit.edu.  

More information can be found at the website https://wmatampere2022.com

Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, this will be the first World Masters Athletics Championships since the 2018 meet which was held in Malaga.  

The WMA Championships have been held by 18 different nations and 23 cities world-wide since its inception in Toronto in 1985.

A blistering sun, temperatures rising into the 30’s, and the noisiest stadium ever, thanks to the drums, castanets and chanting of Thailand’s most enthusiastic cheerleaders, may have softened up some of the athletes at the 23rd Thailand Masters Athletic Championships on March 9-11, but the AVOHK contingent showed their true grit andperformed like stars.

Getting there was the first challenge, for Lampang is in the rural north of the country, two hours south of Chiang Mai Airport. For the group I flew in with, hiring a taxi proved as expensive as hiring a car for the whole five days, but our bacon was saved by Gordon Chung, who borrowed a car from his Thai brother-in-law, and drove down to Lampang with the verve of an F1 champion. Team members at other hotels also found a hire car cheap and indispensable.

It goes without saying that the AVOHK team were among the finest body of muscular men and athletic women who had ever graced the lush valleys and muddy rivers of Lampang Province, but the burning sun took its toll and we were wilting a bit. For example, Frank Pilkington was doing his race warm-up in a hammock,

while Dr John Fowler was attending to a queue of non-paying patients needing advice on how to avoid heat stroke and sunburn. The AVOHK gang’s body language, which usually reads: “We can beat anyone around any track” was melting away to “Give me a beer and let me go to sleep.” But no worries, for fast Dave Smith, the only man with a voice stentorian enough to be heard over the Thai cheerleaders’ booming dance music, provided powerful incentive to the AVOHK track gang … and encouragement was all we needed.