21 marathon runners die from extreme weather 0:52
Hong Kong (CNN) -
Twenty
-
one ultramarathon runners have died after extreme weather conditions affected a 100-kilometer mountain run in northwest China.
The high-altitude Huanghe Shilin Mountain Marathon started on Saturday morning in sunny conditions.
But at 1 p.m. local time, the weather conditions changed, with freezing rain, hailstones and hurricane-force winds hitting runners in Gansu County, according to the state-run
Global Times
.
Liang Jing, one of China's best-known ultramarathon runners, is among those killed, a Hong Kong marathon group called the Hong Kong 100 Ultra Marathon confirmed in a statement released on Sunday.
The marathon group said Liang was a "favorite" member of the Hong Kong ultramarathon running community.
He regularly participated in Hong Kong's annual 100-kilometer trail race and was runner-up in the past two years, he added.
He also described him as "one of the best ultra endurance athletes in the world" and expressed his condolences to his family.
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Suspension of the ultramarathon and search tasks
As temperatures dropped in the Yellow River Stone Forest, runners began to report hypothermia, while others disappeared.
Marathon organizers called off the race and launched a search party of 1,200 people to search the terrain.
The search operation continued into the evening.
Most of the competitors wore skinny shorts and T-shirts.
Janet Ng, race director of the Hong Kong 100 Ultramarathon, told CNN on Sunday that she was not in a position to comment on the importance or safety of the Gansu marathon, but noted that the mountain running community is in mourning and with great sadness.
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'I couldn't feel my fingers'
One participant told local
Red Star News
: “At one point, I couldn't feel my fingers (because it was so cold).
At the same time, my tongue also felt frozen.
He said he decided to drop out of the race.
«I went back to the middle of the mountain and entered a log cabin at the direction of a lifeguard.
There were already about 10 more runners who came down earlier and we waited for the rescue in the cabin for an hour.
At the end about 50 runners arrived and took refuge in the cabin.
By Sunday morning, 151 of the 172 participants in the race had been confirmed safe, and eight of them were in hospital.
Another 21 were found dead, according to the state newspaper People's Daily.
The 100-kilometer race distance was more than twice that of a standard marathon.
China Marathon
