This year’s Lantau 70 promises to live up to its reputation as one of Hong Kong’s genuine classic trail races. Reigning Asia Trail Master champion John Ray Onifa is up against last season’s vice-champion Alessandro Sherpa and Malaysia’s Milton Amat on a slightly reduced course of 64km tomorrow. 2023 race winner Jeff Campbell is unfortunately still sidelined after sustaining an injury earlier in the year.

If the men’s competition looks exciting enough, the women’s Lantau race will also be a cracker with reigning ATM female champion Rashila Tamang at the start line against last year’s winner Katrina Hamlin and other in-form Hong Kong runners such as Angie Yan and Naomi Fung, and Singapore-based Aurore Dacier - winner of MMTF 50 last November.

Lantau 70 features one big loop with start and finish in Mui Wo. The course is far from easy and features quite a bit of the traditional ‘Hong Kong stairs’ , loved by some, dreaded by others. Knowing the terrain and the trails certainly helps if you want to be competing for the prizes. Here’s where John Ray Onifa and Katrina Hamlin, who lives on Lantau, of course have an advantage over the likes of Milton Amat, Wilsen Singgin, Gaetan Morizur on the one hand and Rashila Tamang or Aurore Dacier on the other.

John Ray Onifa has been unbeatable on the ATM circuit for months now and is therefore certainly the top favourite. Alessandro Sherpa ran this race a year ago and finished second behind Campbell. Over the past months, he has also spent quite a bit of time in Hong Kong and rumours are he is going very well on the stairs. Just a fortnight ago, he was running ahead of Amat and Singgin at BUTM 50 until the humidity got to him and severe dehydration set in. Tomorrow’s weather in Lantau is forecast to be cloudy and with mild temperatures, which should favour the Italian. Milton is arguably strong on longer distances, but both him and Wilsen Singgin have been working on speed and especially the latter has seen a peak in his performance curve. Can Singgin cause a surprise tomorrow? What can we expect from Gaetan Morizur, who is kind of returning to the scene after becoming a father early last year, and 2019 ATM Champion John Ellis? Ellis is trying to find back his peak performance level after a prolonged period of injury rehabilitation. It’s not been the easiest of comebacks so far, but a strava upload of 100 miles in Florida last month indicates he is in any case still very motivated. Other outsiders for the top placings in the men’s race are T8’s David Longo, Japan’s Tomohiro Mizukoshi, Richard Kimber, James Balagot and Marc Decamps.

Angie Yan and Naomi Fung both looked great in the 9 Dragons last month and are certainly able to give Nepal’s Rashila Tamang and Katrina Hamlin a run for her money. For Angie, who appears to like starting conservatively, it will be key to manage the gap to the others. Originally, Rashila had not planned to run Lantau 70 but a disappointing DNF in another major HK race in January did not sit well with her. The ATM champion is looking to set something straight, a month before her home race in Kathmandu - the Manjushree Trail. Other contenders for the top placings not yet mentioned are Katia Kucher, Meg Sterling, Kimmy Leung, Rachel Chan and Tsz Kwan Lee.

We will be reporting live from Lantau 70 from start to finish on our usual channels with live broadcasts of start and finish on Facebook, YouTube and X, video updates throughout the race on Facebook and highlights on Instagram.

Lantau 70 with Onifa, Sherpa and Milton Amat