After the 30-minute time penalty for Kenya’s Samson Kamau for not having the mandatory gear, Japan’s Tomohiro Mizukoshi from Tokyo wins the 2nd edition of the Plataran X Trail in West Bali in 7:58:47! It’s his first ever race victory in the ATM Championship series after many places of honour. After all the elites ran together for the first 20 km, the Tokyo runner upped the pace. Only the Kenyan and also Spain's Salva Rambla were able to keep up. However, the winner of Ijen 70 had to let go after 50km and came into the finish at the Octagon Beach Club as third in 8:04. Hisashi Kitamura produced another strong performance to claim the final step on the podium in 8:20! 

The 2nd edition of Plataran X Trail in L' Harmonie and West Bali National Park developed into a very hot edition as noon temperatures reached 35 degrees.. Participants were treated with blue skies on the new running course, good views and vibes, and a fantastic entertainment and cultural programme at the finish area. Strictly technical, the 70 km race was among the most hard-fought races in the Asia Trail Master Championship series this season.

Kuddos to last year's winner Manolito Divina . The Filippino ace crossed the line in fifth place in 8:30, showing he still had something left in the tank in the latter part of the race. Divina, coming back from a long period of inactivity as he set up his new business in Manila,  could not match the speed of the others but proved his resilience as he started to catch up again in the final 15 km. ATM Championship leader Alessandro Sherpawas sixth in 8:46. The Italian stayed with Divina, suffering from his knee. He did well to complete the distance. Another finish and a marginal ATM total points increase for him, as he eliminates his 11th place of Sungai Menyala earlier this season from the five-best-count total. All in all, despite being "only" sixth, Sherpa's ATM lead increases!

Davao's Elias Tabac was going well in the first half of the race, until he had to let the fastest trio go. The difference was never big as Tabac kept fighting, until he missed a marking sign and lost time. Demotivated, he decided to DNF. Malaysia's Steven Ong, who was always going to find the X Trail course very quick for his characteristics as a runner, did a good job initially to keep up with the front pack of young fast runners. Unfortunately, as Sherpa, Ong could not run painlessly and opted to DNF at the 40 km mark, while in 8th place.

In the women's race, Ruth Theresiascored another important victory, her 10th career ATM victory - tying with Tahira Aliyaas most successful runner in the Asia Trail Master series ever. Ruth still looked remarkably fresh at the end of scorchingly hot 70k, considering she ran Bandung Ultra 100 and Ijen Trailrunning in the past three weeks as well! A new win in Bali does not add to her points total, but it doesn't make it easier for her competitors to still use the theoretical possibility of tying with her on points for the 2018 ATM Championship title. Sabah's Jassica Lintanga ( Jess Boubie) came in as second, after running fourth for most of the day. A well-managed effort by Jess, who takes another ATM podium. Sri Wahyuni was third, after another courageous race and fast start. Although totally spent, another podium is her reward.

Both Sri Wahyuni and Manila’s Joeffery Camara also fulfilled the Grandmaster Quest by completing the 70km of Plataran X Trail!

Plataran X Trail concludes a heavy Indonesian trail campaign in Asia Trail Master, with three championship points races in four weeks. And what a finale it will be tomorrow! A stellar line-up has been announced for the 70 km long Grandmaster course in and around West Bali National Park and the Sumberkima Hills, topped off by last year’s winner Manolito Divina is his first ATM race of the 2018 season and Ruth Theresia, who is 99% sure of being the new women’s Asia Trail Master Champion after her victory at Ijen 100 last week.

The race courses for the Plataran X Trail Bali event have been completely redesigned for this year. The 70 km course (previously 50km) now also measures 1000m of elevation gain. Not a whole lot, it is still a race for good runners, but the often steep Sumberkima Hills in the first half of the course will test some of the participants’ resilience. In the second half, the sun may be the toughest opponent as temperatures in West Bali do rise highly during the day after a relatively cool early morning.

The 70k starts at 4:30 a.m. and features last year’s winner, Manolito Divina, 2017 Asia Trail Master Champion Steven Ong, current Championship points leader Alessandro Sherpa, numbers 4 and 5 in the points standings Hisashi Kitamura and Tomohiro Mizukoshi from Japan, up-and-coming double race winner this year Elias Tabac, and last week’s Ijen 70 champion Salva Rambla! Arguably these are the top picks for the podum, but there’s also Yogyakarta’s Dzaki Wardana, who on a good day is always a candidate, just like Surabaya’s Yohanis Hiareij. And let’s not forget Germany’s Thimo Kilberth, third at this race last year and second in the 42km Ijen race last weekend. With such a cast, we are bound to have a fantastic race for the podium. It will be interesting to see also who has the mental wherewithal to cope with the possibility of being distanced during the race by the others… In any case, Plataran X Trail is a race with decent prizemoney for the top performers, which is unusual in trail in South East Asia.

The women’s 70k race will see Ruth Theresia at the start, who just returned from her fantastic win at Ijen 100. The female face of the Bandung Explorer Team is almost guaranteed of the Asia Trail Master Championship title, and therefore it remains to be see how motivated she is to go full power this weekend again. There’s Sri Wahyuni, who was second in Ijen 100, and based on her performance in Brunei earlier this season someone who could score her maiden ATM race victory in Bali. However, there’s also Grandmaster Jassica Lintanga, who always does well on runable terrain and has been in fine shape the last few months with two race victories in Malaysia over 50 km, including Borneo TMBT 50.

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