RTI 2008          
This year's RTI was held successfully on 6th April 2008. Despite 95% humidity and temperatures topping 28 degrees, the event saw some good times posted demonstrating the stamina and resilience of Ultra-runners. The runners were supported by the hardworking volunteers manning the checkpoints around the route providing invaluable food and water along the way and the painstaking and dedicated work of the race director, Dave Smith, who was at the start and finish well before the first runners left at 6:00 am and who remained there to await the final runners in the early evening, long after the 4:00pm cut-off time. 

Final results for each category in the 'True Grit' and 'Whimp' races can be found here.                                                                 

NB Reservoir Cup Series
Choi Tat Ming took the honours at Tai Tam Race 3 with Gillian Castka convincingly winning the ladies race. Race results and series results now out.  UNCLAIMED RACE PRIZES, SERIES PRIZES AND T SHIRTS CAN BE PICKED UP AT THE RTI DINNER ON 23RD APRIL OR AT THE MALCOLM PHILLIPS MEMORIAL RUN ON 10TH MAY. 
Any queries please contact us.

Catherine Leonard and Martin Kennard
Hong Kong's longest running marathon, the China Coast, took place on January 20th. Gunnar Rethfeldt claimed his third victory in the full marathon. He won comfortably in a time of 2.47. At the halfway mark he looked set for an even faster time but the heat seemed to take its toll in the second half. Wong Ping Chuen claimed second spot in a time of 2.52. Peggy Pui Shan won the ladies race in 3.32, followed by Jane Ward. Andy Naylor won the half marathon in 1.15. Roberto Veneziani was second in 1.16. Chan Kit Yee won the ladies half. Veteran John Lane, 71, (pictured above) continued his streak of having competed in every China Coast Marathon since its inception. Overall Full Marathon and Half Marathon results now available.

We are grateful to our sponsors Sun Hung Kai Properties, Swire Coca Cola and New Balance and our supporters Power Bar without whom the race would not have been possible. Thanks to race director Peter Hopper, the HK Adventure Corps, AVOHK members and friends who helped support the event and made it such a success.

Catherine Leonard
Lee Ieronimo is our membership secretary and is sorting out the database which suffered from various technical and human problems. 2008 membership subs are now due. Dues run Jan-Dec, so even if you joined late 2007 you must renew. Remember benefits of AVOHK membership include a discount on AVOHK race entry fees, newsletters, club kit, swim lanes read more.....To renew or join as a new member go to the membership section. For swimming please refer to swimming in the activities menu. If you are not sure of your membership status please contact us on 90385460 or email. HKAAA membership is available through AVOHK this gives priority and discount entry to HKAAA events and use of Wanchai track.

Catherine Leonard
For track meets  Mark Reeves handles the entries. Contact him to go onto his email list.  For several HKAAA events it helps to be a member of the HKAAA so make sure you renew your HKAAA membership again.  The calendar is packed full of races for the coming year.  Please contact us with other events you want added.

Aya Tanaka and Keith Noyes celebrated the birth of their daughter, Kaya, in February.
Everyone at AVOHK would like to send their hearty congratulations to Aya and Keith and to welcome Kaya into the world.
Could this young princess be a future Queen of the Hills?

Bill Purves 

It's rather early to be recruiting for the Brunei Veterans Championships (first weekend in August), but last year we had 24 signed up and had to cancel the trip at the last minute because we couldn't get seats on the plane.  Hopefully, this year all the mainlanders will stay home for the Olympics, but just to be sure we are going to reserve early.  So if you are interested in going to Brunei, please raise your hand to Bill Purves (shtbati-cabledotcom).  We will reserve some seats for those who can decide now, and those who can only decide later will have to take their chances or travel via Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia.

The Brunei Championships has most of the usual events, including a 5000 on the track and a 5000 walk. There is no road race, but accommodation in their air conditioned athletes’ hostel is free, and food is cheap.  (No beer, though.)  Unusually, they have a W30 category. This is a good opportunity to get a Brunei visa, which can sometimes be difficult

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.

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.  

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            May 22-25                   Passed

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.

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.

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 

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.

A new race calendar has been released. It includes all the AVOHK races for the 2008-9 season as well as numerous race walking events. Click 'calendar' on the main toolbar to find this information.

For a full run down on this season's series go to this link.

A run down on this year's event can be found here.

A report on this year's event can be found here.

Stuart and Catherine Leonard
Oxfam Trailwalker 2007 was won by the Fire Services in a time of 12.24. Not far behind them in 4th place in a time of 14.09 were the Sunhing Cosmoboys II; a team that featured AVOHK trailblazer Patrick Ford. The Ancient Mariners Peter Wong, Stuart Leonard, Chris Wardlaw and Peter Tanner (pictures above) took almost  an hour off their own over 50s record with a finish time of 15.24.  The team also managed to record a top ten finish, not bad for a group of vets backed by a magnificent support team.  Read the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariners here.  
AVOHK members Simon Wiggs, Warren Warner and Richard Hall put in a strong performance with their Power Bar team ( 4th photo)and recorded a result of 16.22.  The Plus Forty Fours (Catherine Leonard, Phil Spencer, Sheila Purves and Andy Jepps) also impressed with a time of 17.59. Another all AVOHK team Discovery Bay Runners (picture below) unfortunately lost Andy Pickles around half way but regained him for the final push over 9 and 10,  Koji Mayazaki, Martin Lovell and Juergen Schuster recorded a sub 20 hours finish. St John Flaherty and his team recorded 20.17, Nicholas Brooke with wife Maggie and their team 23.28.  Raymond Lo's team completed the event as did Philip Chan's.  New Balance's Adrian Baker carried his not inconsiderable frame around in a very creditable 27.36.  More AVOHKers were out there, please send us your reports and photos of this year's event, whether you were racing around  or enjoying the views.

Rachel Sproston won the ladies race in the recently held UNICEF half marathon. She may well be lazing on a beach in South America now as she picked up 50,000 Asia Miles in the process. Read Rachel's newly added report here.