Friday, February 18, 2011

Hong Kong Webcam, Standard Chartered Marathon Live Feed

The Hong Kong Marathon, sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank, is an annual marathon race held in February or March in Hong Kong. In addition to the full marathon, a 10 km run and a half marathon are also held.

This live feed is in Hong Kong for the 2011 events:

Hong Kong marathon live feed

The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, started in 1997, grows from strength to strength in the past thirteen years with a record of entries achieved in each year. Total prize money for the Full Marathon will be increased to US$150,000. A special award of HK$144,000 to winners who are Permanent Residents of Hong Kong. Trophies will be presented to the first three winners in each category for 10km Challenge, Half Marathon Challenge and Full Marathon Challenge races. Awards are presented according to Official Times (Gun Time).

The race started in 1997 with 1,000 runners; today over 40,000 take part each year. The full and half marathon's race tracks remained generally the same, starting from Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, then going out to West Kowloon using Austin Road, followed by West Kowloon Highway and Tsing Kwai Highway, where half-marathoners turn back. Full-marathoners continue through Cheung Ching Tunnel, then do a return trip each on Tsing Ma Bridge and Ting Kau Bridge. Competitors then ran back all the way to West Kowloon, joining half-marathoners again at Kwai Chung, and into Western Harbour Crossing. The finishing point, however, was changed to Victoria Park instead of the Golden Bauhina Plaza in Wan Chai North. This arrangement was welcomed by elite athletes, citing that it would improve their performance. Japanese runner Koichioro Fukuoka won the full marathon in 2:16:50, ending Kenya's four year domination of the event.