How mass participation sports events ‘exploded’ in Hong Kong – and the challenges city faces to stay at the forefront
Trail running in particular has seen a huge boom and there are many other thriving events in the city – but the rest of Asia is fast catching up
In these cooler months, there’s at least one, often several, mass participation events in Hong Kong every weekend; no wonder Dan Parr says “mass participation – everything from 2km fun runs to ultra-endurance runs – has absolutely exploded in the city.”
He should know: the managing director of sports marketing firm Fast Track Asia is also one of the city’s leading ultra-runners, whose team was second in last November’s 100km Trailwalker.
Parr was speaking at a recent Business of Sports Network event where the panel – Parr, Action Asia editor Steve White, Andes Leung of non-profit Run Our City and Abhinav Gupta of Active Network, an event management tech company – discussed how Hong Kong came to the forefront of mass participation in Asia and the challenges it faces to stay there.