ATM 500 - Day 14 (Final) - it's a wrap with 206 official team finishers!

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And so the first edition of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual team challenge has come to a fine ending. No fewer than 206 teams of four runners each completed the required distance of 500km within two weeks. Each team had its own ambitions, some wanting to finish as soon as possible, others preferred to distribute their efforts over the full 14 days and maybe try to set a high average speed, or to just get back to basics. For all teams, though, the joy of running together virtually, and an active outdoors lifestyle in general, was at the core of the whole experience. It was a wonderful time.

The last day on Sunday still added some salt and pepper to the fine dish.

The Singapore-based BSK Second Wave team completed the ATM500 Virtual challenge in less than 39 hours running time (37:55:48) and average speed of 13.18 km/h! With that amazing performance, the team still removed Sherpa’s Angels from the top spot in the Speedster Ranking! Of course, the latter team built around ATM champions John Ellis and Alessandro Sherpa, with David Longo and Chong Mei Sze, completed the 500K journey already in four days and had a significant focus on covering distance as quickly as possible. Still, it is a cute anecdote that teams from Singapore are at the top of both result lists in this inaugural edition of the ATM 500, Run Asia, Run Virtual.

The BSK Second Wave team was led by Belgium's Vanja Cnops, who contributed the longest distance at the fastest average pace to the effort: 136km in 9h 44min, an incredible average speed of 14km/h! The other team members were Britain's David Stevenson, South Africa's Bronwyn Small and Spain's Bernabé Sánchez. Each of them contributed between 117km and 125km in less than 10 hours running time also. This was the third team from the BSK informal running group. Their friends, the BSK Marina Loopers captained by Japan's Rie Sugaya, were the only team to finish the challenge on day 1. They were followed closely the morning after by the BSK Underdogs captained by Paulina Svoboda from the Czech Republic. Each of the three elite captains put in a remarkable performance in their own way: Rie was the fastest 125km one-day completer in the winning team, Paulina lead her team to second place at the end of day 1 with 80km ran despite working a full day at the office, and now Vanja has run the longest and fastest in the speediest team. The Singapore trail queens rule!

Spaniard Bernabé Sánchez Naffziger from the abovementioned BSK Second Wave Team is the only runner who actually signed up for two different teams (to our knowledge). After he finished his 145 km contribution for the BSK Underdogs on Day 2 of the ATM 500, he took a rest for 3 days and then began running again for the BSK Second Wave team! In total Bernabe ran 270 km in the past two weeks!

On the final day we also saw the arrival of the only China-based team in our challenge: the Bund Rockets in Shanghai. They as well recorded a quick average speed of 10.73 km/h and a total time of well under 50 hours: 46: 35:06. Congratulations!

A former ATM Champion also arrived today as part of the special “ATM Team” , which participated under the name “Team Ring-a-Ding-Ding”. Malaysia’s Tahira Najmunisaa was excited to be part of a team with William, Kirk and Kris. This was an ad-hoc team due to popular demand, and they actually only got going on Day 6. Nevertheless, they made it on Sunday by more or less taking equal shares with William covering the most mileage with 140km.

All the finishing teams on the last day were:

  • BSK Second Wave Team

  • The Bund Rockets

  • Sante Barley Drago

  • Purva Pascima

  • Team Ring-a-Ding-DIng

  • JB Ultra Team D

  • Aramalt Rungry Runners

  • Banteng Srunduk

  • JB Ultra Team E

  • Ayoyo Runners

  • The Antochi

  • 4c

  • Janji Lari

  • JB Ultra Team A

  • CH Runners

  • Santai Ajak

  • Crazy Strong 2

  • Team Kampung

  • Team Huru Hara

  • Komy Samba

  • BOG Team Beta

  • Kopi2 Harimau 1

  • No Run no Beer VN

  • Team Bulaga 500

  • Takut Lapar Team

  • Komy Kayla

  • Team Ang

  • At the Feet of the Grandmaster

  • Rojak Runners

  • Rinjani Meraung

  • Nang Antap 1

Six more teams reached the 500k benchmark. However, one of their runners did not meet the minimum requirement of 75 km and therefore they are listed at the bottom the results board with an asterix.

All finishers will receive an official finisher certificate in the next days. Those teams who tried, but did not make it, will receive a “trier certificate”.

The inaugural ATM 500 is a wrap! It has been a fantastic two weeks. Both Sportlicious Malaysia and Asia Trail Master are deeply honoured to have seen so many of you getting out there being active at your own speed and with your own objectives, spread out across Asia and even Europe. As a new concept, this was a major success and we will certainly be considering to set up a second edition. Based on the experience of the past fortnight, it will be even better. Stay tuned for ATM 500, Chapter 2 and in the mean time, keep on running! We hope to see all of you soon on the real trails of Asia again!

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The three Singapore “Trail Queens” at the centre of the three BSK teams who coloured the ATM 500 for two weeks: Paulina Svoboda, Vanja Cnops and Rie Sugaya! (pic: Itr.run)

The three Singapore “Trail Queens” at the centre of the three BSK teams who coloured the ATM 500 for two weeks: Paulina Svoboda, Vanja Cnops and Rie Sugaya! (pic: Itr.run)

Kris Van de Veldeatm 500, virtualComment