Hear from the first woman across the line in Hong Kong’s New World Harbour Race: disqualified and disgruntled at a lack of organisation with ‘huge numbers’ of swimmers jumping the gun
GLORIA CHAN
GLORIA.CHAN@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 18 October, 2015, 11:46am
UPDATED : Sunday, 18 October, 2015, 5:04pm
Top swimmers of this year’s Harbour Race complained they were unfairly disqualified for jumping the gun, saying they could not hear the starting signal and many swimmers were already standing beyond the starting point before the race began.
They were among the 2,500 local and overseas swimmers joining the fifth annual New World Harbour Race, splashing 1.5 kilometers from Kowloon’s Lei Yue Mun to Hong Kong island’s Quarry Bay Park this morning.
Fiona Chan On-yi, who originally came first in the Women Open Race Group A (aged 17-35) but got disqualified, said the arrangement this morning was very chaotic.
“There were too many groups starting together and everyone was standing beyond the starting line,” said Chan, who was the champion of the same category last year.
Chan said she didn’t hear the gun but since many swimmers have already started, she followed.
As Chan was talking to reporters, a staff member from the Harbour Race kept tugging on her left arm, persuading her to stop talking to local media and discuss with the organisers instead.
Chan left briefly to file her complaint then returned to tell reporters that organisers told her to write a letter to express her discontent.
David Chiu Chin-hung, Chairman of the Harbour Race’s organising committee, admitted the arrangement had a lot of room for improvement and will be reviewed.
“There was obviously a huge group of people who jumped the gun,” said Chiu. “They are all disqualified and will not have their results or certificates.”
The exact number of disqualified swimmers has not been confirmed.
Organised by the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association, the enrolment quota of the race this year has increased by 500 from last year’s 2, 000, and two new categories – School and Charity – were added.
This is the second marathon within a week to be criticised for poor management. The Hong Kong Tourism board ,organisers of last week's cyclothon, admited traffic jams and confusion on the path should have been avoided with better management.
As experienced cyclists from the 35km events reaching the finish line, they bottlenecked with amateur cyclists starting the 10km Community Ride. Five participants were admitted to the hospital for minor injuries.
The week prior, Action Asia Events was dubbed "irresponsible" for continuing the 'Lantau 2 Peaks' competition in the midst of Typhoon Mujigae. One runner broke his arm and others were injured during the rain soaked event.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1869091/harbour-swim-chaos-disqualified-swimmers-complain
