Nepal runners 3rd and 4th in Hong Kong 50km race

Congratulations to Bed and Bishnu Maya for great performances in Hong Kong this weekend.

It’s Bishnu Maya‘s fourth and fifth trail races and her second 50km event. She looked pretty beaten up at the end, but that can be expected from Michael Maddess’s hilly Lantau course with the awesome-crazy 900m Dog’s Teeth climb. And she tooth a nasty fall between CP2 and CP3 which shook her up. All in all a baptism of fire.

Bishnu has been training for a bit more than a year in her local running club – a rare thing in Nepal. In the past year that she has been racing, she’s improved a lot. This experience in Hong Kong will be valuable, giving her an idea of what it is all about, and giving some focus for future. She’s just 19, or 18, and certainly has potential, and certainly at the longer events.

Today’s 5th placed runner, John Ellis of Gone Running said, “Both Bede and Bishnu had great races, though Bede lost a bit of time with a couple wrong turns. Amazed at Bishnu – a real talent there and such a lovely person too,” and he went on, “… so much potential. She is still learning about nutrition and hydration, and pacing was a little off, but that’s a good thing – easy wins.How else can we help her?”

Bed lost time before CP1 and approaching Cp4 loosing 1st place twice. A little more time to inspect the course would help, but so would a little more attention to the course markers. This course is well marked and it should be difficult to go off route – put it down to hard effort running in the zone.

Bed works at Nepal Army and Bishnu is not looking at too many great opportunities back in Nepal so we’ve set up a small fund to help her train for a year and see how far she can go in 2016: Contribute Bishnu’s athlete fund here!

Results: MSIG Lantau 50 & MSIG Lantau VK – HK50 Series

Double Prize 50k Top 5 Men
Name – Nationality – Team/Sponsor – Time
1. Eirik Haugsnes – Norway – Inov8 – 06:35:20
2. Bed Bahadur Sunuwar – Nepal – Nepal – 06:39:48
3. Vlad Ixel – Australia – The North Face – 07:13:02
4. Orlando Edwards – United Kingdom – 07:24:22
5. Haron Kiprugut Bor – Kenya – 07:46:04

Double Prize 50k Top 3 Women
Name – Nationality – Team/Sponsor – Time
1. Maud Gobert – France – Adidas – 08:01:12
2. Bishnu Maya Budha – Nepal – Nepal – 08:36:29
3. Rebecca Nakuwa – Kenya – 08:41:14

MSIG Lantau 50- HK50 Series
50K
Top 5 Men
Name – Nationality – Team/Sponsor – Time
1. François D’Haene – France – Salomon – 5:42:40
2. Eirik Haugsnes – Norway – Inov8 – 5:56:33
3. Bed Bahadur Sunuwar – Nepal – 05:59:12
4. Vlad Ixel – Australia – The North Face – 06:27:27
5. John Ellis – Australia – 06:27:30

Top 5 Women
Name – Nationality – Team/Sponsor – Time
1. Maud Gobert – France – Adidas – 7:08:42
2. Marie McNaughton – New Zealand – Gone Running/Joint Dynamics – 7:29:47
3. Rebecca Nakuwa – Kenya – 7:42:56
4. Bishnu Maya Budha – Nepal – 7:44:39
5. Sally Chelagat Kipyego – Kenya – 8:23:13

Race organiser’s report here.