{"id":177214,"date":"2025-12-10T05:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/177214\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T05:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:55:09","slug":"how-hong-kong-marathon-star-went-from-reluctant-runner-to-smashing-the-6-big-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/177214\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hong Kong marathon star went from reluctant runner to smashing the 6 big races"},"content":{"rendered":"

Runners taking part in various marathon events over the coming months \u2013 including the Road Scholars China Coast Marathon on January 11 and the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon on January 18 \u2013 have been out in full force on the streets of Hong Kong lately.<\/p>\n

A marathon is not an endeavour one typically approaches lightly. For most, running a 42km (26-mile) race is the culmination of months or years of preparation that has conditioned both physique and resolve for the gruelling distance.<\/p>\n

For Hongkonger Sophia Leung, who only laced up her first pair of proper running shoes in her forties, that conventional path was never part of the plan.<\/p>\n

Shortly after completing her first marathon in Australia\u2019s Gold Coast in Queensland in 2017, she found herself lining up for more.<\/p>\n

\"LeungLeung runs the Tokyo Marathon in 2025. Photo: courtesy of Sophia LeungIn 2018, she would take on Berlin and New York, both pillars of the prestigious six Abbott World Marathon Majors<\/a>, which also include London, Boston, Chicago and Tokyo. Earning the coveted Six Star Finisher medal is a lifelong ambition for many, a globe-trotting testament to personal endurance that places awardees in one of the sport\u2019s most exclusive clubs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Runners taking part in various marathon events over the coming months \u2013 including the Road Scholars China Coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[25860,13299,25857,103973,3198,103968,103969,103965,3448,85,46,1437,103971,75294,103966,103970,1886,103967,6721,103974,105,1880,103972],"class_list":["post-177214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-abbott-world-marathon-majors","tag-berlin","tag-berlin-marathon","tag-boston-marathon","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-marathon","tag-covid-pandemic","tag-gold-coast","tag-hong-kong","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-japan","tag-london-marathon","tag-marathons","tag-nagoya-womens-marathon","tag-national-academy-of-sports-medicine","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-marathon","tag-personal-training","tag-sophia-leung","tag-sports","tag-tokyo","tag-tokyo-marathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}