RUNNERS COMPLAIN OF OVERCROWDING AFTER CLOSURE OF SPORTS GROUNDS AHEAD OF HONG KONG MARATHON

Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground closed in June last year, Kowloon Bay Sports Ground closed this month for renovation

With the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon little more than a week away, local runners are struggling to find space to train at the city's few remaining open public tracks.

The problems started after two government sports grounds in East Kowloon were closed. Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground was the first one to go last June for track resurfacing work, which is expected to finish in March.

And this month, Kowloon Bay Sports Ground closed for renovation for nine months.

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Kowloon Bay Sports Ground was the venue where Hong Kong women's team were forced to use the men's toilet as a changing room for their 7th Hong Kong-Guangdong Cup match in December.

To try to ease the overcrowding, Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground has opened its secondary sports area. However, many runners said that the track is only about 300 metres long and has a damaged surface, making it difficult to train for the upcoming marathon.

The closure of the sports grounds has forced a large number of runners to converge on Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground in Wong Tai Sin.

But, unsurprisingly, the sheer number of people using one sports ground has caused long queues outside Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground.

A viral social media post of the queues was a hot topic of discussion among local runners, with one user quipping:

"I thought I was lining up for the Chinese New Year market."

Under the same post, a user named Chris Lam called the queues "The Great Migration of Animals."

In another post, photos showed around 600 people crammed on to the track at the same time, prompting a user called Kenny to comment: "Much harder than the crowded start of the Standard Chartered Marathon."

The runners also complained about the changing facilities.

"It's like a concert backstage - too many people, not enough benches. I had to put my stuff on the sink counter to change!" runner Frankie Yau said.

In addition to an overcrowded running track, runners at Hammer Hill Road also have to compete for space with football players who block five out of the eight lanes with cones for their practice sessions.

Some runners have dubbed this "a super obstacle course".

Limited opening hours are also adding to the problem, with HKAAA members enjoying exclusive track access from 5.30pm to 7.30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning that public runners have to wait until 7.30pm on those days to use the track.

Some runners refused to tolerate the overcrowding and found alternative training facilities.

"We relocated to Jordan Valley Park or hill runs to avoid crowds and potential conflicts or accidents," Ferdinand Tsang Fuk-cheung, Hong Kong trail running representative and the head coach of Hill and Heal running, said.

"Yes [it affects training], but there is no choice," Tsang said about training at new locations.

Tsang's running class trained in Kowloon Bay and Hammer Hill Road regularly before the overcrowding.

He called for nearby facilities like Kowloon Tsai Park and Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground to extend their opening hours to accommodate the runners.

Currently, Kowloon Tsai's 400m eight-lane track is open from 6.30am to 6pm from November to April, while Kai Tak offers free entry from 7am to 10am and 12pm to 3pm but charges HK$18 for evenings. All sessions need to be booked in advance.

The Post reached out to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), which manages the facilities, for comment.

The LCSD said it needed to consult individual grounds before responding.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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2026-01-08T23:23:21Z