The last points race event of 2024 is upon us this weekend. Starting on Friday morning already, Prenn Trail Summit in Vietnam’s meanwhile famous Dalat offers 182km and 55km race categories for ATM Championship points, while Grandmaster Quest runners can also go for the 100km category. Prenn is a new event on our main calendar, following a successful Candidate Race review last year. It takes place in a different area than the currently still better known Dalat events. Organiser James Nguyen, who has been running in ATM promoted events himself, and Unique Events are ambitious and keen to provide stellar experiences for their participants. Prenn is a tea resort, acting as the base for the event.

Despite being a very much end-of-year event, Prenn Trail Summit has attracted quite an international field of runners, and even including our reigning ATM Champion Jeff Campbell. The Hong Kong Canadian will be making his first appearance as champion on the 55km , a distance he has always loved to attack on. It’s been three months since he narrowly outgunned Hisashi Kitamura in a brave race at Borneo TMBT Ultra, but recent performances within Hong Kong suggest he is still very much “on call”. He should be in any case, because also Chris Timms will be running the 55km in Dalat this Saturday. Timms is in the best shape of his life, which he illustrated at the same ATM Final race, coming in in fifth place, and a month later at Ultimate Trails of Penang, winning the 60km race - his first ever victory in our series. Timms will find the Dalat trails also very much to his liking. Campbell has Vietnamese trail experience and certainly starts as the favourite, but Timms will make sure he stays focused. Another ATM regular who can contest the podium is Japan’s Tomohiro Mizukoshi. As with Timms, Dalat should suit him. No longer the youngest of the competitive bunch, but a podium is definitely a possibility. Besides, Mizukoshi is just 1 point away from becoming a 4-star Grandmaster. It won’t happen this weekend of course - 55km is not the minimum required distance of 70km - but it illustrates how much experience Tomohiro has gathered running mainly outside of Tokyo.

Vietnamese ‘elites’ are primarily going for the longest race distances, in this case the massive 182km. Last year’s Prenn winner Nguyen Van Chung will be there, as well as Hoàng Hữu Thăng and Trần Minh Tuyê. However, it’s Loi Luong who captures the attention on the female start list. The best-placed Vietnamese runner in the 2024 ATM Championship - finishing 4th in Borneo TMBT - is aiming for her first ‘Miler’ and it’s even a ‘Miler+’. She will have a good guide in Le Thi Hang, the leading lady in Vietnam of the long ultras. There’s more strong women, though. Risa Kamiya from Japan and Yvette Chong Mi Chin from Sarawak in Malaysia both can aim for a podium finish. In recent months, Yvette’s running pace has clearly increased and if she can manage her energy tank over the full 180km she should not be underestimated. The same applies for Philippines’ Shekinah Velasquez. Her first long ultra of this kind , but she comes in with proven credentials obtained in races where the going gets tough.

ATM will be broadcasting and updating live from Prenn Trail Summit in Dalat starting on Friday morning at 8:30am local time. Stay tuned on our facebook , youtube and instagram pages.

Prenn Trail Summit with ATM Champion Jeff Campbell