BUTM in Sabah, Malaysia, is NOT a points race in this season’s Asia Trail Master Championship series, as it was decided - in agreement with the event organiser Borneo Ultra Trails - that the 100 miles race at the new Borneo Miler event on 4/5 June will get the honour. Nevertheless, a lot of Malaysian trail stars were present at BUTM yesterday, together with the inevitable Hisashi Kitamura, who is still based in Kuala Lumpur until the end of April. And that same Kitamura finally scored his long-desired victory over Sabah’s trail hero Milton Amat. After 13h27’ he crossed the finish line of the 100km race first, and no fewer than 28 minutes ahead of Amat. The two friendly rivals had been running together for approx 75km until Kitamura decided to up the ante. Bit by bit he increased the gap.

Last year, the Karate Kit had also reached the finish first, but then lost the win due to time penalties for missing a checkpoint marker and a mandatory gear item. Later in the season, Milton Amat was clearly too strong for him in the classic TMBT 100 in September.

Third on the podium was good old Daved Simpat, who showed he remains a force to be reckoned with in any trail race. He finished two hours and twenty minutes behind Kitamura, but was himself more than two hours ahead of the next runners: Gustin Tiam, Andrew Farmers and Jonathan Nicol.

The women’s 100km saw a bit of an upset victory by Rejlen James, who reached the finish almost two hours ahead of vice-ATM champion Sally Yap and last year’s TMBT 100 winner Siet Fah Lim! Does James come out of the blue? Not really, our ATM database shows she won Bromo Tengger Semeru Ultra 100 in 2017, and was second that same year in TMMT 70k. Quite a comeback after six years!

BUTM 50km developed into a battle between Wilsen Singgin, for once opting for the shorter distance, and Yasbie Ismail. Singgin took it. Third place went to Korea’s Byeonggwon Park - who’s been on ATM podiums a few times before covid, too. The women’s 50km went to an exciting young Malaysian talent Shamiera Auther, who has clearly made a performance leap forward compared to last season. Shamiera won 23 minutes ahead of Korea’s experienced Boyoung Jan, who has three ATM podiums on her record of which two last year, and a full hour ahead of ATM local hero and Sabah ambassador Jess Lintanga in third place.

BUTM: Kitamura finally gets his win over Amat