VMM: the stars do not disappoint in 10th anniversary party

The 10th anniversary of Vietnam’s maiden trail running event in Sapa saw plenty of stars deliver outstanding performances on what was a dry race day for nearly all competitors. John Ray Onifa outsprinted Kristian Joergensen and the surprisingly quick youngster Godwin Mirar in a spectacular 50km race in which they did not spare each other. They went all out and even to the extent that multiple race winner Gaetan Morizur finished an hour later in fourth. Joergensen had said not to be feeling very well prior to the race, but that did not show during the race. Halfway he even led Onifa by a minute. Mirar was just another minute further back. But Onifa is in fantastic shape these past two months, and managed to return and drop Joergensen for a prestigious victory - his fourth ATM win of the season, and his eighth ever. Godwin Mirar finished just 11 minutes later. Back in 2019, Mirar showed himself for the first time in The Punisher, where he scored a fourth place behind Kitamura, Macaneras and John Ellis. Wisely so for a 23-year-old talent, Mirar focuses on short distance races for the time being with the occasional 50 thrown in. Based on his VMM result, we can expect to see some more great things from this young man from Bukidnon in Mindanao.

The Filipino success continued shortly after as reigning ATM Champion Arnie Macaneras conquered the 70km race in truly dominating fashion. Macaneras had a gap of one-and-a-half hours over Poland’s Michal Lesniak and Nguyen Duc Tuan Anh, who did well himself in scoring a podium at the expense of a.o. Trung Nguyen, who settled for fourth. Since winning the ATM title back in December, Macaneras seems to have gained self-confidence and is now fully unleashing his potential. With this kind of form, he looks like he could just as well defend his ATM title at Siksorogo Lawu Ultra in December, which would be unique as nobody has ever won the ATM title twice.

The 100km men’s race quickly developed into a three-man-battle with Cuc Phuong 100 winner Nguyen Si Hieu slightly behind waiting for someone ahead to implode in order to claim another ATM podium. Shockingly, that man to implode was pre-race favourite Jeff Campbell, who pulled out of the race after about 38km. It turned out Campbell had entered the race with a calf injury that he believed had healed enough for him to do a competitive race at VMM100. Unfortunately, the injury was still there and already at km 28 Campbell was visibly struggling compared to Hung Hai and Nepal’s Sange Sherpa. The latter two went ahead and stayed together until about 20km to go, when Hung Hai launched an attack and managed to drop Sherpa. Hung Hai won VMM for the third time in his career after again spending a month preparing in Sapa itself. His preparation contrasted with Sherpa, who had flown into Vietnam following his completion of TDG in Italy just over a week earlier. The gap at the finish was just ten minutes with Hung Hai winning in an incredible 12h54!

The 50km for women was dominated by Belgian Vanja Cnops, who scored her third ATM win of the season, her seventh ever. Already a winner of VMM 42 a few years ago, Vanja knew the trails already and immediately found the pace to run away from the other competitors. Trần Hồ Nguyên Thảo came second and Giàng Thị Linh third.

On the 100km women, we had a very nicely executed victory for Man Yee Cheung, her first ATM race victory after a 2018 podium in the 9 Dragons Ultra. Since then, she had gained a reputation as one of Hong Kong’s most solid ultra distance runners, and she proved that in Sapa. What adds extra spice to the win is her very late arrival in the mountain town - just three hours before the start. She was running second basically all day, kept leader Le Thi Hang within reach, and pushed the throttle in the last hour of the race. Le Thi Hang, from Vung Tau towards the south of Vietnam, was 4th in Dalat Ultra Trail in March and is known to be running a full marathon distance every day. In addition, she ran VMM 100 in sandals rather than specific trail shoes. In third place of the women’s race we had Luong Thi Loi, and the experienced Le Phuong Vy came fourth.

Akane Nemoto scored a nice victory in her debut on the 70 km distance. The Ho Chi Minh-based Japanese runner had to work hard for it as Le Xuan Suong was with or close to her for most of the race and eventually came in just 11 minutes later. Third place went to Thailand’s Sutinee Rasp.

The fourth and final Vietnamese points race event in the 2023 Asia Trail Master Championship series is Lam Dong Trail in Dalat on 11 November. The 75km distance is the one to aim for there.