Ethiopia's Bizuneh Belachew won the Hong Kong Marathon on Sunday, while Bahrain's Habtegebrel Habte triumphed in the women’s category.

Belachew clinched his second win in the SAR with a time of two hours, nine minutes and 39 seconds, nine years after his first triumph.

He told reporters he managed to break out in the latter stages of the race.

"It was difficult. There were many internals in the middle," he said.

"About 30 kilometres, I get a little gap to the front. And then I can pace and then break [away from] the group, I had energy."

Habte was the first woman to cross the marathon finish line at Victoria Park with a time of around two hours and 27 minutes.

Wong Wan-chun and Virginia Lo were the fastest local marathon runners to cross the finish line.

Lo said she wasn’t too happy with her time of around two hours and 41 minutes, noting that she wasn't in tiptop shape having only had a week off after the National Games in November.

"I don't want to get injured, we still have a lot of future plans. So for this [Hong Kong] marathon, we didn't push too hard," she said.

Chinese runner Chen Yufan topped the men's half-marathon in less than one hour and eight minutes, around one-and-a-half minutes faster than the SAR's best, Gi Ka-man, who came third.

The women's title went to Singapore's Rachel See, whose time of just under one hour 21 minutes was just seconds faster than the SAR's Crystal Vut.

Vut said the weather was perfect for her and she was on pace throughout the course, but she was overtaken in Causeway Bay.

Local runners Wong Tsz-to and Tsang Hiu-tung, meanwhile, won the 10-kilometre events.

Race organisers say as of 11am, 30 runners were taken to hospital after feeling unwell. Two men are reported to be in a critical condition and two other people are in a serious condition.
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Last updated: 2026-01-18 HKT 12:47