Andy Lee Chong Chi and Chong Mei Tze are the two winners of quite a runable Perak Ultra last weekend, the next ATM Candidate Race in Malaysia, organised by the crew of The Great Malaya Trail. The event featured several race categories of which the 100k attracted most attention. Heavy rainfall preceeding the event, however, forced a number of reroutes away from the trails deeper in the rainforest . As such, total distance was about 92km and a much more runable route with quite a bit of tarmac road, which played into the hands of ultra road specialist Chong Mei Tze. She led the race basically all day and won ahead of Siokhar Lim and Norlela Ismail in a very solid 11h06 and fourth overall. Siokhar Lim is a busy bee these days again, having just scored 3rd in last week’s Jagoi Heritage Run in Sarawak, too. Clearly in very good shape with a finish time of 11h27, the technical trail runner and ATM Grandmaster will be a big favourite in her home race next month, Ultimate Trails of Penang (UTOP).
The men’s race turned out to be very exciting with two runners going head-to-head. Japan’s Atsushi Ito and Andy Lee Chong Chi. Initially, Ito appeared to be the fastest of the two, but Lee Chong Chi came back and managed to drop Ito in the latter stages to win in 10h04, three minutes ahead. Impressive running by the duo. Seiji Morofuji completed the podium in third 50 minutes back, also one week after Jagoi.
Special thanks to our ATM reporter in Perak, Mark Jinmin.
The men’s podium: Andy Lee, Atsushi Ito and Seiji Morofuji
The women’s podium: Chong Mei Tze, Siokhar Lim and Norlela Ismail
