This weekend's first Indonesian race of the 2015 Asia Trail Master series was won by local Indonesian runners Jumardi in the men's category and Mila Marlina in the women's. 26-year-old Jumradi had an advantage of almost 50 minutes over second-placed Wijanarko and crossed the line (picture below) in 9:48:08.

The 42km long marathon distance proved to be a real hard nut to crack for most of the participants. Climbing up the two peaks was always meant to be tough. No fewer than 4000m of elevation gain had to be conquered on "just" 42km. On the bonus side, runners enjoyed spectacular views of the national park. 

Quick podium results:

Men: 1. Jumradi (indonesia) 9:48:08; 2. Wijanarko (Indonesia) 10:35:32; 3. Gaspard Dessy (France) 10:54:17 
Women: 1. Marlina (Indonesia) 14:43:37 . No other women made the 16h cut off time

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The 2015 (Inaugural) Tsaigu Tangsi Plus 57km Trail Race was held on 11th, Apr, 2015 at Mountain Kuocang Shan in Linhai, Zhejiang Province, China. It is the first in the four “Asia Trail Master” races in Mainland China and one of the 22 ATM races in the whole Asia along with UTHK (Hongkong), TMBT 100km(Malaysia), Vietnam Mountain Marathon(Vietnam) and so on.

By Xiaozhao Zhao

Click for Chinese language report

 Mountain Kuocang Shan is famous for its beautiful natural scenery and steepness, its highest peak-the Mishailang is also the highest point of southeast of Zhejiang and regarded as the first place in China under the sunlight in 21st century.

 Mountain Kuocang Shan is well-known for its tea plants and rich in wild bamboos. The rugged stones and clear creeks are also common in this area, plus almost 100% of blue sky which is rare in other area of the Eastern China under industrialization and urbanization.

Approximately 274 runners from all-over China, Belgium, Greece and Brazil took part in the race. 163 among them (144 males and 19 females) were in the 57km category and the rest (67 males and 44 females) in the 28km category. The total elevation gains are 3850m and 1850m respectively.

The race started at 6 AM at the foot of the stronghold built in Qing Dynasty in downtown but the route quickly switches into trails leading to the Mountain Kuocang Shan covered by dense bamboos, trees and bushes. All the runners were happy to indulge themselves into the amazing wild with a little adventure and exploration on their own feet.

The 2015 Vibram HK100 winner and current course-record holder Longfei YAN led the race all the way to the finish, in CP2, he created a gap with the second place for about 20 minutes, while at the finish, 90 minutes faster than the runner-up, Zhangrong XIE from Winzhou. Zipeng FENG was the 3rd male.

Top 3 males:

1 Lonfei YAN-6hrs 43mins

2 Zhangrong XIE-8hrs 27min

3 Zipeng FENG-8hrs 52min

Longfei was a professional marathoner from Heibei province with personal best marathon time of 2 hrs 15mins. In 2014, he switched from road marathon to trail ultras and won the Dalian Ultra 100km in his debut and has begun his career as one of the best ultra-trail runner in Mainland China. ”I am happy today, beautiful natural view, good organizing and hospitable locals make a race and my effort worth it well. So I finish as fast as I could and use the Tsaigu Tangsi as training to a 100km race in Australia in summer. I may come to run again next year. Compared with road marathon, I love trail running more.”

Belgian Nooureddine Sahibi is a manager in a electronic company based in Shanghai. He is also addict to ultra-trail running and finished UTMB and UTMF in 2014. He also ran several ultra-trail race in China, including Vibram HK100 (13hrs 13mins, 2013), HZ100 (19hrs 24mins in 2014) and Lantau 100 (17hrs in 2013). He finished as the 5th male and 5th overall and played and chattered with the locals, volunteers and children at the finish. “I like running in China, you see, lots of friendly people out there, runners, volunteers, locals, I like hanging out with them before and after races. This time, I enjoyed a tough but lovely race again! For a totally new race, I cannot image so excellent organization.”

 In women’s field, although the most ferocious Chinese runners like Junyan LIU, Qian ZHANG and Li DONG were absent, the race is still full of uncertainty. Junfang TAO was followed by Ai CHENG until halfway, then CHENG successfully made up the gap and caught up with TAO gradually. Finally, CHENG reached the finish 30mins earlier than TAO and won the race. TAO got the second place. Danyang LI finished the 3rd. CHENG completed 2015 Vibram HK100 with in 16hr and she is considered as one of the competitive female ultra-runner in Mainland China.

Top 3 females

1 Ai CHENG-10hrs 28mins (14th overall)

2 Junfang TAO-11hrs 12mins

3 Danyang LI-11hrs 45min

 Finally, 114 runners (105 males and 9 females) finished 57km in its 15 hours limitation, while 92 runners (57 males and 35 females) finished 28km during its maximum time of 7 hours.

 The Race director, Yu CAI thought that the race is a success, “We have so many kind and warm-hearted volunteers from Linhai Mountaineering Association, a grass-root organization consisting of local hikers and runners. They are familiar with the runners’ need during the race. I also appreciate the sponsors who support our race. I think that joining ATM series is an effective way to promote our race in Asia area and even the international trail running community. The improvement might be asking the locals to keep eyes on their dogs in order to keep the runners safe. At the very beginning, I almost designed a 78km loop course, but cancelled the last 20 km because it is all boring road running and might be in the traffic.” CAI is an experienced trail runner with UTMB and UTMF finishing in recent years.

 Volunteers seriously devoted themselves to their work and also were happy in helping runners. In CP2, a father and his child worked as volunteers to distribute the food and timing. The father said, this is a good chance to let his boy know the meaning of helping and giving, as well as respecting the nature. Many volunteers used their own cars or SUVs to serving the race. 2 of the 6 checkpoints offered hot meal with local flavor. Not far from the finish, several volunteers use the kitchen of a household to cook delicious porridge and fried bamboo shoots for runners reaching the finish.

Where does the name Tsaigu Tangsi Plus come from?

*Origin of the name “Tsaigu Tangsi” -- it is from a local slang in Linhai, it means “beat somebody black and blue with a wood stick”. CAI and his fellow volunteers use it to describe the challenge and difficulty of the race as a humorous joke.

Picture material of Tsaigu Tangsi Plus is available on our instagram account, and later this week a selection of high quality photos will be added to our pinterest page. 

Dominant winner of the 92 km race: Lam Chi Yung (HKG)

The first edition of the 175 km long Ultra Trail Hong Kong tool place last weekend in the New Territories and turned out to be much harder than most runners expected. As could be seen on our live coverage page, only 37 runners finished within the 50-hour deadline, with a buffer granted to three more runners to get a place in the official race result - which is also the basis for the distribution of performance points for the Asia Trail Master ranking. 

The first race of the ATMs began in cloudy but generally great running conditions on Friday early afternoon. Runners from China took off very fast, but then would miss a couple of signs when darkness fell. This opened the way for a number of local runners to grab the top spots at checkpoints. Eventually, four of them, Alex Fan, Lau Hoi Fai, Wong Tze Wan and Chun Pak Hang, would reach the finish together in a time of 39:31:26. Rather than sprinting against each other, they crossed the line in brotherly fashion.

In terms of Asia Trail Master points, this will put the quartet also at the top of the first ranking with 575 points each. The ATMs ranking committee has decided not to distinguish between them, but to avoid controversial situations in the future, it has also added a detail in the points regulations: if runners cross the finish line together, the ranking at the last checkpoint before the race finish will be consulted to determine who scores the most performance points. 

Two women mastered the 175 km course last weekend, with Yuen Kit Shan even scoring tenth overall in 43:45:51! Behind her in second was Kathy Yu  Hiu Kit, and Tan Seow Ping was the last timed finisher in third in 51:04. 

There was also a B-race at UTHK, but not exactly short neither at a length of 92 km. One man dominated that race, Lam Chi Yung in 15:58. He scores 92 distance points and 200 performance points for a total of 292. Eagle Lee Kin Wai and Lino Lopes grabbed the remaining steps on the podium, aided by a last-minute retirement of Neil Fraser, who got lost with a mere 6km to go. Suzanne Liu was the fastest woman in 21:29, with Poon Yuk Pui not far behind in second and Kennis Chueng Ping Ting in third. 

The next race where points for the ATMs ranking can be collected is next week's Wild Elephant Trail in Sri Lanka (event sold out), before the series moves to China for a couple of races in April.