Hong Kong movie star Chow Yun Fat’s jogging contingent at the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon is growing.
The 70-year-old jogging enthusiast led a group of over 20 friends in the 10km race on Jan 18.
Among them were Hong Kong actor Kent Cheng, 74; actress Nina Paw, 76; actor Lau Kong, 79; as well as actress Priscilla Wong, 44; and her husband, actor Edwin Siu, 48.
The race also marked the largest group to run alongside Chow, affectionately known as Fat Gor (Cantonese for Big Brother Fat), at the event.
He first took part in the event in 2023, when he completed the 10km race in 1hr 3min 58 sec.
He switched to the half-marathon in 2024 and clocked 2hr 26min 8sec for the 21km race. He took part in the same race in 2025 and improved his timing to 2hr 24min 33 sec.
Chow returned to the 10km race in 2026 to accommodate his pals and completed it in about two hours at a leisurely pace.
He praised his fellow runners after the race, noting that Paw had completed 17km in Japan.
The One More Chance (2023) actor also commended Cheng, who was invited to challenge his first 10km race after jogging with Chow for nine months.
“I was able to go from zero to 10km all thanks to Fat Gor,” Cheng told the Hong Kong media. “It was exhausting, but incredibly satisfying after the run.”
Chow described Lau as the group’s “spiritual leader”, who reminded them to jog every day.
“Lau is our teacher and he’s going to be 80 this year,” Chow told Hong Kong broadcaster RTHK. “So we decided to join him and run, and this is like the biggest gift to him.”
He added: “The results don’t really matter. We just wanted to finish the race and say hello to the spectators.”
Other celebrities who took part in the event included Mirror singer Alton Wong, singer-composer Terence Lam, actor Carlos Chan and his wife, actress Shiga Lin.
The event drew about 74,000 runners from Hong Kong and other regions, with Singapore’s Rachel See winning the women’s half-marathon. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
