France’s François D’haene (post-race interview) and China’s Dong Li (post-race interview) won the 2016 Vibram Hong Kong 100k in highly unusual conditions for Hong Kong. Indeed, in many ways, the cold, windy weather was the story of the race. Thick frost forced the race administration to briefly reroute the race course off an open paved road and onto a nearby trail so runners wouldn’t be endangered by cars driving in slippery conditions up toward the race’s and city’s high point to spectate. Runners reported that the race course–including its roads, trails, and thousands of stairs–was frost covered, and as the race progressed into the overnight hours, that frost turned to thickening ice. In the end, the race was cancelled 24 hours into the 30-hour cutoff for safety reasons.
In addition to this article, you can find our
a collection of our pre-race interviews and previews on our 2016 Vibram Hong Kong 100k live coverage page.
As usual, we’ll be updating this article with additional results as well as links to race-related articles, photo galleries, and race reports. Check back.
Thanks to Vibram for making our coverage of the 2016 Vibram Hong Kong 100k possible!
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2016 Vibram Hong Kong 100k Men’s Race
The first 10k of the race were as one would expect for a race with a speedy start. Aside from Bed Sunuwar taking it out hard enough to have a slight lead before soon dropping back, there were nearly 10 runners in a pack including favorites François D’haene (post-race interview), Yan Long Fei (post-race interview), and Gediminas Grinius (pre-race and post-race interviews). Also in that group was local runner Vlad Ixel, who joined the other four runners mentioned to together as the rest of the lead pack fell off by 28k. Seven kilometers later, Vlad, too, had fallen a few minutes off the lead pack while Pau Capell, Jordi Gamito, and Tsutomu Nagata gave chase.
Francois d’Haene on his way to winning the 2016 Vibram Hong Kong 100k. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
By half way, François and Yan ran alone in the front. François would gain advantage on the technical sections while Yan would hold the edge on the flatter stretches. Having won last year, Yan surged on a long road climb around 70k and built a minute or two lead on François that he’d maintain for most of the race… until François caught him with about 1k remaining on the final climb. The Frenchman would put five minutes on the Chinese runner in the final few kilometers en route to a course record.
Yan Long-Fei after finishing second. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
After the race, Yan noted that he accidentally left his warm layers in a pack he swapped midrace and suffered mightily from the cold.
Gediminas Grinius is happy to finish third. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Meanwhile, Gediminas ran alone in third place for a majority of the race. While he was running well, it quickly became apparent that he was unlikely to reel in either of the two leaders and, instead, he focused on running a consistent race to take third.
2016 Vibram Hong Kong 100k Men’s Results
- François D’haene (Salomon) — 9:32:26 (post-race interview)
- Yan Long-Fei (Salomon) — 9:37:17 (post-race interview)
- Gediminas Grinius (Vibram) — 9:53:51 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Pau Capell (Compressport) — 10:06:42
- Yeray Durán (Arista) — 10:36:04
- Jordi Gamito (WAA) — 10:37:36
- Kazufumi Oose (Salomon) — 10:47:39
- Siu-Keung (Stone) Tsang (Champion Systems) — 10:53:02
- Wataru Iino — 10:56:59
- Jussi Nokelainen (Inov-8) — 11:07:55
2016 Vibram Hong Kong 100k Women’s Race
Last year, Dong Li (post-race interview) led most of the Vibram Hong Kong 100k before Wyan Chow caught her late in the race. This year’s race was the Dong Li show from start to finish. From the outset, she ran at a more conservative pace. She was joined by Basque runner Silvia Trigueros in the early part of the race, but she powered on to take the win.
Champion Dong Li and third place Silvia Trigueros racing early. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
After Silvia fell off Dong’s pace, she fell into the company of Italy’s Lisa Borzani (pre-race and post-race interviews) who took third in last year’s race. At times the two ran together for long stretches, while they would trade places in others.
Second place Lisa Borzani moving in the race’s early kilometers. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Eventually, it was Lisa who pulled away to finish second and improve one position on her finish from 2015. Silvia took third by a large margin.
The 2016 Vibram Hong Kong 100k women’s podium, left to right is third place Silvia Trigueros, winner Dong Li, and second place Lisa Borzani. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
2016 Vibram Hong Kong 100k Women’s Results
- Dong Li (Salomon) — 12:05:32 (post-race interview)
- Lisa Borzani (Tecnica) — 12:30:41 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Silvia Trigueros (Race Land) — 12:34:23
- Corinne Williams — 13:19:34
- Elisabet Margeirsdottir (Arctic Running) — 13:41:40
- Emilie Tan — 13:47:52
- Marie McNaughton (Gone Running) — 13:55:52
- Natalia Watkins — 14:06:09
- Nicole Lau — 14:10:52
- Wing-Yan (Nicole) Leung — 14:14:09
2016 Vibram Hong Kong 100k Articles, Race Reports, and More
Articles and Photo Galleries
- Salomon Running Facebook gallery
- South China Morning Post’s article (with details about the cancelation)
- Asia Trail magazine’s video on the men’s race
Reports
Coming soon.
