Geoffrey Toroitich wins Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Half Marathon as Hong Kong actor impresses fans

Geoffrey Toroitich destroyed a strong field to win Sunday’s inaugural Bank of China Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Half Marathon.

Toroitich won the men’s race in 1:01:38 as Sarah Chelangat of Uganda took the women’s crown in 1:08.04, with both earning US$10,000 (Ksh 1,515,546) in prize money.

The men’s race saw the Kenyan duo of Evans Mayaka and Ronald Kirui who clocked second and third in respective times of 1:01:53 and 1:01:58.

In the women’s race, Kenya’s Gladys Chepkurui finished second in 1:09:48 as Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui completed the podium in 1:12:14.

Local acting star Chow Yun-fat was also in the race and he attracted the biggest cheers at the finish line on the Hong Kong section of the bridge. The 67-year-old finished his first half marathon in 2:27.56.

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Meanwhile, as reported by the South China Morning Post, the Organising committee chairman Simon Yeung Sai-mo was impressed by the turnout of the athletes.

“I spoke to some runners too, including those from overseas, and they all believed the route is good and agreed it is a great event by us.

This is our first event, and I believe it was a successful one, but there are definitely things we can take a closer look at if we are to do it again next year,” he explained.

He added that there were two aspects they would need to improve on including the placement of toilets on the bridge because some runners reflected there were not enough at the starting line, so it was inconvenient.

He added that they also needed transports to send runners to the starting line and pick them up from the finish line.