The final points race in Thailand of the 2022 Asia Trail Master season saw a number of great performances by emerging trail runners, as the local and regional trail elites were competing 60 km further south in the trail world championship. Doi Nhok Trail in Wang Nuea also stood out for its wonderful event management by a redesigned teelakow team, including the impressively stocked aid stations (pizza!) and start/finish arena set-up. The many hundreds of participating runners will also remember DNT for the tough race courses, providing a mixture of runable sections and extremely technical single trails that made running hardly feasible. The latter translated into a very long day for those people on the longer distance categories.

The 124 km and 58 km races were the chosen categories for the ATM Championship ranking. The male and female winners Arnon Srimat and Areerat Kareeklin ensured themselves of a spot on Team Thailand for the ATM Championship Final on Mount Apo next month. Srimat was third in UTKC earlier this year, and was in a league of his own last Saturday at Doi Nhok. His finish time of 29 hours 10 minutes nevertheless was an indication of the difficulty of the terrain. Second and third on the podium went to Phanlop Deechob and Somsak Jaejong. Areerat Kareeklin already won UTKC 70 in March, and thus scored her second ATM race win of 2022. On the podium with her were Sirinapa Phimklang and Srida Pheunghua.

On the 58 km we had a strong Malaysian winner who therefore managed to get into his national team for the ATM Finals. Amir Zaki shrugged off the disappointment of his DNF at UTOP last month by taking his first ATM race victory, more than one hour ahead of Chaisak Wangsnam and Nuttapong Sreedach. The fastest woman came next, fourth overall, and hailed from Ireland: Rachel Nolan. She proved too strong for the other women in the field, of whom Srinual Kanta and Prapaphan Thongsao completed the podium.

The 100 miles category, considered the most extreme miler in Thailand and beyond, was won by Germany’s Stefan Boeck in over 36 hours. Strongest woman was Thanussarinya Thaviphan in 53 hours.

A double ATM race winner in 2022: Areerat Kareeklin takes the 124 km race at Doi Nhok

Ireland’s Rachel Nolan was clearly the fastest woman on the 58 km despite severe stomach issues the day before the race

Chaisak Wangsnam and Nuttapong Sreedach were second and third behind Amir Zaki on the 58 km

It’s busy weeks on the ATM circuit and the trail racing continues this weekend with the final points race in Thailand for 2022, the Doi Nhok Trail near Chiang Mai. The second edition of this event unfortunately threatens to be overhadowed by the WMTRC event, which got rescheduled from last year to this weekend and which also takes place in the Chiang Mai area. Some of the biggest names in ATM and in Thailand, and other neighbouring countries and regions, e.g. John Ellis, Milton Amat, Jeff Campbell, Ezster Csillag, Sally Yap, Ruth Theresia, John Ray Onifa and Jay Jantaraboon have received the opportunity to measure themselves on a global stage. As a consequence, we expect instead to discover several new faces at Doi Nhok Trail. The start list of the event is in any case very long. The list of race distance categories is unfortunately also very long. ATM Championship points will be scored on the 125k and the 58 km races. But runners on the Grandmaster Quest can do 80km, 125km or even 100 miles.

Last weekend’s 9 Dragons in Langkawi, an ATM Candidate Race label event, saw a very nice victory by Andy Chong Chi Lee on the main 50/50 category, that is 50 miles on Saturday and 50 km on Sunday. Lee made the difference on Sunday, when he distanced Singapore’s Lem Chee Ng - with whom he had finished together a day earlier. Siokhar Lim was, as expected, the only female finisher of the 50/50. Francesco Floris ran with her quite a bit to be third in the men’s. The 50 miles single race was won by Ben Hails and Law Bee Chiao. The 50k single race went to Radzi Mokhtar and Gladys Ang.

The plagued Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival in Taiping has now been forced to reschedule the event date as a consequence of Malaysia’s national elections taking place on the original weekend of 19/20 November. MMTF is now set for one week later. Both the 100km and 50km races have a very competitive field of entrants, hopefully most of them can still make it on the new date. Along with Malnad Ultra in India, Cordillera Mountain Ultra in Philippines and Izu Trail Journey in Japan, MMTF is one of the final points races for the 2022 ATM rankings, and thus opportunity for runners to get into their national country team for the ATM Championship Final on Mount Apo in Davao, Philippines, on 17 December.

A media conference on the Mount Apo Sky Race event was held in Davao City this week and can be watched here.

Runners who are currently in the Top of their country ranking will receive all details on the event in the coming days. As previously announced, all qualifiers will get free race entry for the 75k Final race, free 3-night accommodation, free country team t-shirts, and free airport shuttle services from/to Davao City.

Andy Chong Chi Lee scored a very nice victory in the 50/50 of the 9 Dragons Langkawi

The third confirmed Thailand event in the 2022 Asia Trail Master Championship series is Doi Nhok Trail on 5/6 November. It’s the second official edition after 2019, and the first time it is part of our calendar. DNT, as it is commonly called, is organised by the same team as a.o. UTKC, UT Chiang Mai and UT Panoramic, i.e. Teelakow. As has become common in Thailand, trail runners can choose between an abundance of race distance categories. However, in the context of the ATM Championship rankings, the focus can be maximum on two of those and at DNT the spotlights will be on the 125 km and the 60 km categories. Both have the same status, so the winners collect 500 points. The Grandmaster Quest challengers can opt for the 80K and 100 miles as well to bank a point.

‘A Beautiful Nightmare’ is the slogan of the event and it probably describes the race course accurately. Elevation gain is substantial, making DNT on paper among the toughest races on the ATM tour this season. The 125km category has 6300 hm and the 60km (actually 58km) is just shy of 3000 hm. That’s a lot of uphill climbing, but fortunately teelakow is known for being very considerate with their cut-off times.

The online registration has been open for a while, but now that traveling to Thailand is again increasingly straightforward, DNT is on the radar of many international runners, too. Follow the link below to secure your bib.

More details on the race courses will become available very soon.

The Doi Nhok Trail event in Thailand on 6 November now offers two A-points races for the Asia Trail Master Championship. The longest distance, the 100 miles, was already labeled as such, but now also the medium distance of 58 km will be credited with 500 points for the winner.

The Doi Nhok Trail takes place in the north of the country in Wang Nuea in Lampang, roughly between the cities Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. The region is beloved by trail runners and certainly in Thailand it has become the playground for many events in the last few years. Doi Nhok Trail, in short DNT, is new on the ATM calendar this year. It will be the last of four scheduled events in the country, following Samui Monkeys’ Trail, Ultra Trail Chiang Mai and the classic Ultra Trail Chiang Rai - still the Thailand SuperTrail in ATM with 50 bonus points for all finishers.