One week after Borneo TMBT, we move on to another classic on the Southeast Asian trail calendar, the VIetnam Mountain Marathon. Taking place in the northwestern ethnic mountain area in Sapa, VMM is arguably also the toughest in the country where trail running has seen an incredible boom over the past two years. New local hero Hung Hai will be trying to win the 100km again after his phenomenal run a year ago.

Hung Hai has been training in the Sapa area for quite some time to prepare. It will be needed because Tokyo’s Tomohiro Mizukoshi will be at the start this weekend and he is in better shape than he was in May for the Vietnam Jungle Marathon. On paper these two look like the main guys to watch on the 100k, which this year has a slightly new course with the addition of one more climb. However, Nguyen Duc Quang - who finished together as 2nd with Hung Hai in VJM 70 and has more experience - is another serious contender. The Vietnamese stars are not playing an active role in the Asia Trail Master Championship so far this season, but a second podium this weekend could of course still be a stimulant for more in the remaining races. For injury-prone Tomohiro, VMM presents an opportunity to boost his total points and edge closer to Championship points leaders Hisashi Kitamura, John Ellis and Milton Amat.

VMM is one of those races in a “new market” with lots of unknowns on the start list so there’s potentially a lot of strong contenders. One international runner who is of course very well-known is Francesca Canepa, the Italian Uglow runner who should be the leading lady on the 100 km this weekend. However, trail in Asia is not the same as in continental Europe and there lies the chance for other competitors such as Habiba Benahmed, who is improving race by race and getting closer to her best performance level again.

The 70 km option, which is actually the original VMM race category, seems to have a wider range of podium contenders this year. As 70k is a Grandmaster race distance, the winner here will still go home with 370 ATM Championship poins in the bag. The 100k winners of course collect 500. On the 70 we will find athletes such as Mads Louring, who is in-form and more than solid on the medium distance. Margono from Indonesia is making his occasional start in a trail race again. The national speed walker has a pedigree in fast trails such as Sungai Menyala Forest Trail and Tahura Trail, and it will be interesting to see how he fares on the more technical, mountainous and slightly longer course of VMM. Aaron Ong from Singapore can be expected to challenge for the podium.

In the women’s 70km we have Julia “Sugar” Nguyen Thi Duong who will be trying to please her home crowd. Hong Kong’s Jcy Ho will be in it for sure - but just a week after a strong 3rd place in Borneo TMBT she may not be at her freshest.

Julia Nguyen Thi Duong won VJM 70 last year

Hung Hai: new Vietnamese running ace

Tomohiro Mizukoshi: a prime candidate for the race win in VMM 100

Third place last week on Borneo: what’s in it this weekend for Jcy Ho?

We expect several new names to appear on the leaderboard this weekend, and ATM is of course present in Sapa for live coverage on our facebook page.

The 9th edition of Borneo TMBT 100 goes into the history books as one of the most exciting, if not the most exciting! In both the men’s and women’s main race the decision fell in the final 10 km of the classic race in Sabah, East Malaysia. The local crowd had a lot to cheer about, as home favourite Milton Amat delivered his best racing performance ever in outbluffing the once again amazing Hisashi Kitamura for a superb victory. The Uglow Malaysia duo fought an amazing battle at the end of the race, after Alessandro Sherpa settled for third place.

Milton Amat was in great shape and he could not hide it for long. He dropped his fellow Sabahan Daved Simpat, who won TMBT a year ago, and the other main contenders already going into WS 4 at km 36. Amat would stay solo in the lead for the rest of the race until the meanwhile inevitable Hisashi KItamura began the chase in earnest. Alessandro Sherpa, adopting a more conservative race strategy this time around, kept himself in the mix as well. Daved Simpat, however, decided to DNF after 60km. His sore ankle began to hurt too much once again.

 Kitamura perfomed his famous ‘Karate Kit’ jump to indicate his intention to attack, but his first attack proved fruitless. Even Sherpa came back to him eventually, and Amat remained out of reach. In fact, at WS 9 the gap had increased again to 20 minutes - the biggest it had ever been!

Not for the first time this year, Hisashi Kitamura showed incredible grit and gave it his all. The next two sections to WS 11 were mainly downhill and the Japanese used his natural running advantage. It was here that Sherpa had to let go once and for all. Kitamura was flying and minute by minute he edged closer to Milton Amat - as could be seen on the fantastic Dot Track Asia map, showing each runner’s GPS locations. In the approach to the final aid station WS 11, Kitamura caught Amat and passed him straightaway! The stunned Sabahan had no immediate response. But… and this is the great bit: Milton Amat kept his head cool and did not give up! The last 10km to the finish of TMBT are all gradually uphill and mostly on road. Amat has the advantage over Kitamura on that type of terrain…. and indeed: he crept closer and closer to the struggling leader and caught him again with 8k to go! Now it was the local hero’s turn, catch and pass. Kitamura was dead in the water. Milton Amat stormed to the finish and showed a great deal of emotion , which does not happen often, as he crossed the finish line. A superb performance! Kitamura came in second, exhausted. Sherpa cruised home in third, and Canada’s Jeremy Ritcey came in fourth not too far behind. Ritcey ran a very consistent pace all the way, despite arriving in Kota KInabalu just before the start after a delayed flight. Brunei-based South African Christo Swart made it up to fifth in the race and finished, ahead of Brunei’s Alexander Chung. 

Milton's winning time for the 109 km was 14:22. Kitamura 14:39 and Sherpa 15:24. Milton Amat won his home race for the second time after 2017. Visibly delighted with his second ATM race victory of the season after Mantra Summits Challenge, Amat moves up to third in the Asia Trail Master Championship ranking and remains very much in contention for the title. Kitamura, though, remains the leader.

In the women’s, Japan’s Asuka Nakajima led from the start, but a painful knee slowed her down towards the end. In a situation similar to the men’s race, Guangzhou’s Wen Danyu had never been far away and caught Nakajima on the way to Cp11. Danyu pressed on uphill and took a great first victory in an ATM points race. Despite missing out on her fourth race victory of the season, Nakajima regains the points lead in the Asia Trail Master Championship at the expense of Fredelyn Alberto. It is now obvious that any woman who wants to become ATM Champion this year will need to pass Asuka ‘Bazooka’. Jcy Ho from Hong Kong ran a very consistent race and was third. A result that will push the Oxsitis runner into the top 10 of the ranking, with more to come for sure. Malaysia's Ng Song Hiang was a strong fourth place and first of the home runners.

Wen Danyu's winning time was 17:50. Nakajima came in in 18:04 and Jcy Ho in 18:36. 

Both the men’s and women’s 100k races were pure promotion for the sport of trail running. A trio of runners giving it their best the whole day and creating the kind of excitement that even non-runners can enjoy. TMBT of course has a well-varied course that lends itself to this, with an ideal mixture of runable and technical sections. The races took place in cool, hazy conditions but were dry. Contrary to the days before, when heavy rainshowers put the organisation under a lot of pressure. A re-route due to a swollen river was implemented right after the start. It meant, a.o. things that the total race distance was increased to 109 km.

The 50k race - always well-stocked in talent but not a points race for the ATM Championship - was won by Kim Jisob from South Korea and Lauren Woodhouse from Great Britain.

Two classic South East Asian trail running races back-to-back now with Borneo TMBT Ultra this Saturday and Vietnam Mountain Marathon next week. TMBT continues to attract a lot of people to Sabah, one of the East Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. It’s an event with a lot of categories, but the 100K remains the flagship and even the most popular one. It is indeed a 100K that many people argue “you can do”. However, this is by no means a walk in the park and besides the tropical humidity, heavy rainfall can cause muddy, slippery trails at all times.

Quite some international trail and spartan stars have been invited to the event this weekend, but nearly all of them are running the shorter distances. Good news for the Asia Trail Master Championship contenders and especially defending champion Alessandro Sherpa, as they can go for the prestigious race victory and the full 500 ATM Championship points whack! In fact, it is something the Italian desperately needs now if he wants to keep his ambition to retain the ATM title alive. Top favourite this weekend, though, must be local star Milton Amat. Currently 5th in the Championship, Milton can become third with a strong result and winning would reduce some pressure in that sense. Winning his home race is in any case Milton’s dream. He already did so in 2017, but that was jointly with … Sherpa (who made his debut as a ultra trail runner back then!). Last year, Milton came in fourth and quite far down on his fellow Sabahan Daved Simpat. Even youngster Wilsen Singgin (who runs the 50k this weekend) finished ahead. Milton Amat of course will excel if the terrain gets rough. He is slightly disadvantaged if the faster legs in the starting field can make their speed to work. In any case, for all contenders staying ahead of ATM Championship leader Hisashi Kitamura will be essential to prevent the Japanese Uglow ace from earning too much of an advantage. And there we have Kitamura’s goal of the weekend rightaway. Three weeks after his stellar show in Merapoh, he cannot improve on his total points tally - 2575 - at TMBT. His fifth and “worst” result is 500 points for 2nd place in the SuperTrails Dalat and Mantra. At TMBT 100, the winner scores 500. But it is important for Kitamura to beat his opponents in a straight dual just in case down the line in Taiping and TNF Malaysia runners end up with the same number of total points.

There’s a question mark behind the participation of another Sabahan star, Daved Simpat, winner of this race a year ago. He returned injured from Europe last week and will see how he feels. Simpat has not run any ATM races so far this season and does not seem to be a title challenger, therefore. There’s a few dark horses, too, mostly expats. Jono Woodhouse, from Australia but living in Hong Kong, could be most dangerous. Stephen Dundon is another Ozzie who won Merapoh 70k and also scored third in Ijen Trail 70k over the last few weeks. Jeremy Ritcey is coming back after a break and Scott Pugh is an ultra runner who is likely to appear in the top placings of the leaderboard late in the race.

Also in the women’s 100k, a lot of participants and it is hard to know each one’s background. But those 6 women in the poster below will be close to victory and podium for sure! Asuka Nakajima lost her top spot in the Asia Trail Master Championship to Fredelyn Alberto in Thailand two weeks ago, but the Japanese runner can reclaim it on Saturday. Unless she DNF like in Penang Eco, TMBT will be her 5th result of the season and that means a full whack of points still. Being 317 points behind Alberto in the ranking, a top 9 result will do the trick: definitely within reach! Nakajima already won three ATM races in 2019, there’s a good chance that she will be the target for the other title contenders in the next few months. Adelinah Lintanga, however, is the home runner in Sabah and very keen to win this weekend. Lintanga is racing much less this year, and with great competitive effect: she won Penang Eco 100 miles in style! Adelinah has a weak ankle, which hopefully won’t bother her too much. Hong Kong’s Oxsitis ambassador Jcy Ho is on a roll: she ran the 62K in Chiang Mai two weeks ago and came 4th, now she is on the 100k and next week she is also doing Vietnam Mountain Marathon. Jcy Ho made herself known in the 9 Dragons 50/50 earlier this season by coming second, and backed that up with a solid 5th place on the fast Sungai Menyala Forest Trail. A podium at TMBT is a real possibility. Paulina Svoboda, from Czech Republic but living in Singapore, is always a contender. She won MMTF and Merapoh last year, this year she was 4th in Ultimate Tsaigu 80K. Chong Mei Tze from peninsular Malaysia is a newcomer and as she said herself in Merapoh: a newbie in running even! Her relative inexperience still shows, but the pace is there. If she can get it all together, watch out for an upset victory this weekend! From Philippines comes Melanie Hingpit, another dark horse who on given days rises up to the occasion. Finally, we are also interested to see how Evelyn Lek from Singapore will fare. After winning Merapoh 100 and VMM 100 a year ago she has been struggling a bit competitively, but winning aforementioned races proves the ability is there. Also on the start list, but a DNS is Faherina Mohd Esa, who suffered a badly twisted ankle last week.

As usual we will be reporting live from Sabah starting on Friday afternoon and throughout the race on Saturday, which starts at 6 a.m. local time.

Asuka Nakajima can regain the points lead in the ATM Championship at TMBT 100

Sabah’s Wilsen Singgin has finally got it all nicely together in an ATM-promoted race as he grabbed a very convincing victory in the Labuan Bird Park Ultra, a 2020 Candidate Race. As temperatures reached scorching digits, Singgin from Team Uglow Malaysia, ran away from his experienced fellow Sabahan Safrey Sumping and reached the finish in 7:47. Singgin ran UT Chiang Mai barely a week ago (but got lost, preventing a strong result). and was the runner who collapsed with a heatstroke in Moon 100 just before the end when a 1-2 with Milton Amat was nearly a given. He is known to be a raw diamond who will only get more consistent as he gains experience in trail running. In any case, the pace is already there. Sumping crossed the line 35 minutes (!) later. Guianus Salagan was a solid third in 8:37.

Kona Liau took the victory in the women’s 70k race, finishing ahead of Mailungin Salungin in 10:21:58.

On the 50k, Malaysian Vilbon Madilan finished ahead of Bruneian Muhammad Nor Ali Fullah Haji I. Early race leader Sapirin Sumping missed a marking halfway and lost a lot of time. Zulkarnain Masuyuk and Grandmaster Amirul Tuah from Brunei were next.

First woman was local hero Jessica Binti Suip. She passed early leader Ina Budiyarni from Indonesia, the first ever female Grandmaster in ATM back in 2016. Just passed halfway Budiyarni missed a marking (as several others did) and fell back in the ranking order. Nevertheless, Binti Suip just had too much speed left for anyone to take a well-deserved victory with a big margin at the finish. Budiyarni was second 53 minutes, just ahead of Ti Tijuan Tan.

Labuan is a new destination in the world of ultra and trail running. As this weekend’s event showed, the length of available trails is still on the limited side, but will be extended in the near future. Victoria Sports, as technical organiser of most events on the island, is keen on turning Labuan into a prime venue for distance runners.

The numbers 1 and 2 on the men’s 50K:

Local Labuan runner Jessica Binti was too fast for anyone else on the 50k for women

Japan’s Yuta Matsuyama Matsuyama has won the inaugural edition of Ultra Trail Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. He reached the finish line after a very wet race with a few section shortcuts due to flooding between CP6 and CP9 ahead of Sabah’s Milton Amat, for whom the course was probably a tick too runable, despite the foul conditions. Matsuyama this season already scored a 7th place in Echigo Country Trail in Niigata last June. Japanese runners are doing very well in Asia Trail Master races this season, and we are looking forward to seeing more from Matsuyama as well! For Sabahan Milton Amat, that’s another 450 points for his championship ambitions, but he will be looking to win his next few races to stay within range of Kitamura and Ellis. His Uglow teammate Wilsen Singgin started the rain race very well, but then missed a marking and lost terrain to the front runners.

Sukrit Kaewyoun ran a superb race and stayed ahead of his teammate and race favourite Job Tanapong. Sukrit Kaewyoun is third in the finish and boosts his ATM Championship total points tally. Job Tanapong had to be content with a fourth place today and probably had hoped for more. Much to his credit, he was not looking for excuses and just stated “it was not my day today, I will be back stronger”. His Thai compatriot Yotchai Chaipromma came in closely behind him in fifth. 

As stated above, just like last week in Merapoh in Malaysia, pouring rain caused havoc on the trails around Chiang Mai. Just like then, the organiser in Thailand did very well in quickly setting up a re-route halfway through the 100k race when running conditions became too risky. However, yesterday in Chiang Mai a lot more runners had already passed CP 6, where the shortcut got implemented, and including the first six women of the race...

It is unfortunate that no immediate action was undertaken to correct or at least clearly establish the ranking order of the women’s race at that point in time. This caused a lot of unnecessary confusion and even anger at the finish.

What we know from the checkpoint e-data is that six women passed CP 6 and all six also arrived in the finish in Chiang Mai later on. Christine Loh was first and logically therefore the real winner of the women’s race. Early leader Fredelyn Alberto was second and acknowledged that Christine passed her in the late stage of the race. Alberto, who has previously said to run ‘only’ the 62 km race category, is the new Asia Trail Master Championship leader as a result of this second place in her fifth points result of the season. She takes over from Asuka Nakajima, who has four results so far. Hong Kong-based French woman Habiba Benahmed completed the podium ahead of Siokhar Lim and Natthanan Matthanang. Jassica Lintanga was running third halfway through the race, but eventually came into the finish as number six.

A group with lots of Thai runners actually were the first women to reach the finish, among whom Montha Suntornwit. But these all ran the shorter course after the re-route.

Let’s emphasise that no woman made any error or mistake. It is just an unfortunate circumstance.

The same applies for some men such as Nikom Tongjai. A very solid runner himself, he ran the original non-shortcut course but for some reason finds himself down in 26th place in the race result. Guillaume Degoulet is another one suffering the same fait. Please note that while the top six for women was quite easily for us to assess, ATM is not responsible for the race result. Runners who feel they deserve or should have a better race result should get in touch with the local organiser. We thank you for your understanding.

Yuta Matsuyama is yet another Japanese runner scoring headlines in ATM this season

Sukrit Kaewyoun felt like a fish in the water in Chiang Mai; third place and ahead of Job Tanapong!

Local hero Cartoon Wipawee is struggling with an injury, yet comfortably won the 62k category