HK marathon scheduled on Oct 24, runners must be double-vaccinated

The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2021 is set to resume on 24 October, after being suspended last year due to the outbreak of the pandemic. According to the organizers, there will be a total enrollment quota of 18,500 for this year's event, allocated to the marathon, half-marathon and 10km race.

In order to ensure the safety of the race, the organizers have adopted several kinds of measures, including all runners in the physical run being required to have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine recognized by the HKSAR government on or before Oct. 10, 2021.

Speaking on radio today (Aug. 19), Ng Yu-ho, executive director of the Hong Kong Association of Athletics Affiliates (HKAAA), said that apart from the elite runners who will continue to use the traditional gun start, other runners will be arranged to start the race in a more flexible manner to minimize the number of people gathered at the start and to allow more space between each runner.

Ng added that all runners are required to wear masks at the starting point, and after they get to a certain position, they can remove their masks. The organizers will place enough recycling buckets for disposed masks and will also distribute masks to runners at the finish point.

It will be the first major mass participatory sporting event in HK since the start of the pandemic.

Registrations for the public ballot entry will open at 10:00 a.m. on  Sept. 2.

At least half of the quotas for the three respective categories have already been reserved for runners who had successfully enrolled for last year’s canceled race. Eligible runners can register through the Guaranteed Entry from Aug. 23 to 27.

For more details, please visit the event's website: https://2021schkm.hkmarathon.com/.