Northern clubs regain position at Hanoi Midnight 2023

Bac Ninh Runners and Northern Alliance ranked first and third respectively, while the Central representative - Ha Tinh Runner became the runner-up of the 2023 season.

VnExpress Marathon Hanoi Midnight 2023 Ioniq 5 Cup continues to be the stage for 52 clubs and groups to compete in team events with a total of 1,100 runners participating. Contrary to initial predictions, groups from the Northern region rose strongly, taking 2 out of 3 top positions. Even 8 out of 10 groups in the top 10 are from the North. On the contrary, the names from the South that had no rivals last season have lost their form.

Bac Ninh Runner (BNR) surprisingly won the team event, having not received much attention before the tournament. BNR completed Hanoi Midnight with a total time of 46 hours 56 minutes 30 seconds. This result was better than the achievement of the "former king" Lien Quan Binh Duong & T-coaching in last year's season (47 hours 4 minutes 55 seconds).

The Bac Ninh team has many runners who are considered to have equal quality. The male athletes all have results around sub 3 for the full marathon and sub 1:30 for the half marathon. The female runners have results around sub 4 for the full marathon and sub 2 for the half marathon.

Pham Duc Tho was the one with the best personal record (2 hours 40 minutes 53 seconds), ranked 4th overall. He competed equally with names like Truong Van Tam and Nguyen Quoc Anh for most of the race. "9 months ago, when we assembled the team, our performance was worse, only a few people in the sub3 FM approached. But after 9 months of guiding each other and seriously practicing, BNR has had really sweet results," said runner Nguyen Quang Duc - a member of the BNR board of directors.

BNR team takes a souvenir photo before entering the race. Photo: NVCC — BNR team takes a souvenir photo before entering the race. Photo: *NVCC*

Behind Bac Ninh Runners is a familiar name - Ha Tinh Runners - Goya 3. Compared to the third place in last year's season, this year the Central representative has moved up one place on the rankings. The club's total achievement is 47 hours 22 minutes 54 seconds, an improvement of nearly 2 hours compared to last year (49 hours 14 minutes 38 seconds).

The third-placed team is the Northern Alliance - a name that runners predicted to be in the top 3 when they revealed their lineup before the race. They gathered many famous amateur athletes such as Nguyen Van Tuyen, Trinh Dinh An, Tieu Duong, Ha Van Duoc, Ho Chi Thien... The total result of the alliance was 47 hours 57 minutes 56 seconds.

The remaining two positions in the top 5 belong to Thai Binh Runner 1 (48 hours 35 minutes 17 seconds) and Binh Tri Thien Runners (48 hours 56 minutes 30 seconds). These are all rookies of the 2023 season.

Moving down to the top 10, the 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th places all belonged to running groups in Hanoi. Ho Lon Team ranked 6th, Cau Giay Park Runner - Anta ranked 7th. 8th place belonged to Ha Dong Runners. Meanwhile, Thanh Cong Runners was the 10th ranked team. Quang Ninh Runners finished the race in 9th place. This is a provisional result. The Organizing Committee will announce the final result after working and resolving complaints (if any).

Top 10 team racers on the podium to receive awards. Photo: Tung Dinh — Top 10 team racers on the podium to receive awards. Photo: *Tung Dinh*

This year, the tournament gathered more than 52 clubs, including many rookies. The clubs that participated in the first season have a lot of experience and have made changes to improve their performance, so the race has become more fierce and unpredictable. The champions and runners-up of last season, Lien Quan Binh Duong Running Club - T-Coaching and Ultrain, did not participate at the last minute due to personnel difficulties. This is also the reason why the top 10 did not have any representatives from the South.

The team event requires each team to have 20 members, 10 competing in the full marathon (at least two female athletes), 10 in the half marathon (at least four female athletes). The results are calculated based on the total completion time. The ranking on the Hanoi Night Run leaderboard partly reflects the strength, position and colors of the Vietnamese amateur running community.

The winning team will receive a total prize of 40 million VND (25 million in cash), the second prize will receive a prize of 32 million VND, and the third prize will receive 26 million VND. In addition, the top 10 teams with the best results will receive training funding of 3 million VND per group from the organizers after the event ends.

Thanh Lan