Hong Kong, together: Chan Ka-ho and Gi Ka-man cross half-marathon finish line hand in hand in fitting gesture
- ‘It’s really great to be running together where we used to not – we used to compete,’ Gi says of his long-time rival
- ‘We were thinking, are we actually gonna be sprinting at the end? If I try to win, I only win by a couple of seconds,’ Chan adds
With Sunday’s Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon marking a symbolic return to togetherness for the city, joint men’s half-marathon winners Chan Ka-ho and Gi Ka-man provided a fitting gesture by choosing to cross the finish line hand in hand.
“We probably aren’t as fast as some of our kids by now,” Chan told the gathered media in a post-race scrum at Victoria Park. “So today at the finish we were thinking, ‘Are we actually gonna be sprinting at the end? If I sprint or try to win, I only win by a couple of seconds. There’s not much in it’.”
The 37-year-old veterans and long-time rivals, who are both now also coaches, finished in one hour, eight minutes at 55 seconds, after setting off in the early hours of Sunday morning from Nathan Road in Tsim Tsa Tsui.
“We both set a really high pace,” Gi said. “I’ve been competing with Ka-ho for almost 20 years since we were 18. Now I’m 37. But we just keep going up the age groups, now to Master 1. If you’re asking us to break our previous records, we might not be able to.
“I think our position as runners or athletes now has more of a coaching capacity. I just hope we continue to bring our athletes to another level. [Regardless of] whoever wins or loses, what’s most important is when we’re running, we do our best.
“Nowadays between me and Ka-ho, we’re almost being polite and saying, ‘No, you go first’, because there’s not much in it. It’s really great to be running together where we used to not – we used to compete.”
