The first Asian Skyrunning Championships kicked off in Hong Kong Saturday with Japan and Nepal sharing the 4 gold medals at stake in the Sky and Ultra distances, while China took two silver. Japan came out tops with an additional two silver and four bronze medals.

The two events were attended by top international skyrunners aiming for early points in the Series while the Asians showed their class by winning outright the men’s and women’s first places in the 50K: Samir Tamang and Mira Rai from Nepal. The men’s podium was completed with China’s Yan Longfei and Spaniard Cristofer Clemente. In second place in the women’s category were China’s Dong Li and American Kasie Enman, third.

Heading the men’s podium in the 28 km were Japan’s Dai Matsumoto and Kondo Yoshito with Italy’s Marco De Gasperi, third. Race favourite De Gasperi took a wrong turn costing him four precious minutes. Japan counted four runners overall in the top ten.

The women’s field saw 2014 Skyrunning World Champion, Italian Elisa Desco, take the win as predicted, followed by Italian Stephanie Jimenez and Japan’s Kanako Hasegawa.

1,200 participants took part in the MSIG Sai Kung 50 weekend’s events, organised by Michael Maddess, China Skyrunning chairman. Of these, the 28 km and 50 km races were valid for both the Championships medals and Skyrunner® World Series points. The new 3 + 1 formula scores three out of five Series races in each discipline plus one race in any of the Continental Series.

The resounding success of the events attracting a world-class field and the strong performance of the Asian participants will ensure we’ll be seeing lots more of these runners in the near future on the international scene. It’s also sure that in the next few years Asia will represent an spectacular skyrunning playground. Look out for the next Hong Kong race on October 4, with the Lantau 2 Peaks 21k in the Skyrunner® World Series.

See race results below: keep reading on Mountainblog.asia