Finally it is here: the first release of the 2019 Asia Trail Master event calendar. On top of that, we have changed outfit for the upcoming year: hope you all like our new website design and features.

Having said that, please note that the event calendar is of course not yet 100% complete. A number of events are still under discussion, especially those in the second semester of the year. In addition, December 2019 has not been included yet in the current presentation. Three events are scheduled with the championship final planned for the weekend of 14/15 December. These events will be revealed mid-January. What we present today are the events that are confirmed, and we are thrilled to see those events on our list, indeed!

The 2019 season begins with Tahura Trail in Bandung, Indonesia, home base of our 2018 female champion Ruth Theresia. The event on Saturday, 19 January is the ideal season opener with a moderately difficult 42k trail marathon to open the accounts. In total, our objective is to limit the 2019 calendar to maximum 30 events. That’s at least six events less than the past two seasons. Too much of a good thing does not necessarily create extra value and both runners and ATM management need to stay fresh throughout the year to perform. Incidentally, this was also one of the takeaways of our end-of-year poll last week. Many thanks to everyone who took part in the poll.

Events that are interested to join the 2019 Asia Trail Master Championship series therefore need to hurry up. We accept application for Q1 and Q2 until 31 December 2018, and until 31 March for Q3 and Q4. Organisers are kindly invited to contact us via email and attach this application form. Before you apply, please check the current race calendar here on the website. If your event is planned for the same weekend as an event on our calendar, you know what our first question will be.

On the new website, we have created PDF versions of the ATM race calendar, divided by quarter to maintain a decent download speed. Each event also has a cover page containing the ‘Tale of the Trail’, the basic details of the event and tips on how to get there. At all times, we recommend runners to link through the event’s official website as well to read the fine print, especially regarding mandatory gear that can be extensive for some of the longer and more technical races.

Facebook has become increasingly used as a main source of event information. We at ATM make use of our Facebook page a lot and will continue to do so. However, we kindly request everybody not to forget our website. It has all the background on ATM and ATM-promoted events, and most of the questions we receive can be easily answered if you just click to our website page for a minute. In 2019, as you can see, we aim to have several key pages translated into a series of Asian languages.

As every year, some events have left ATM either because they have different priorities or simply because they cease to exist. We feel that the new entries, though, more than make up for those who have left and we welcome them with open arms. Asia Trail Master keeps on maturing and so do the events and their management. Trail running remains a niche in the running industry, but it’s an exciting niche with so many enthusiastic people doing their best to develop the sport here in Asia. Runners might sometimes forget how hard it is to set up a trail running event. Runners deserve all the applause they get, but we kindly appeal to everyone to always keep that in mind when something is not going to your liking in a race. We’ll be having a little break over the new year’s period first, yet we are already looking forward to the fifth season of the Asia Trail Master Championship series beginning with Tahura Trail in Indonesia on 19 January. It’s going to be more exciting and bigger than ever with several new innovations in the pipeline, just waiting to be announced in January. Stay tuned!

“As it’s only the best five points races that count for the championship, I’ll try to do as many as possible in the first part of the year and see my name on top of the ranking for a long time. Great for my sponsors!”

— Top Asian runner @ Izu Trail Journey

2022 ATM Season VII Overview

“I am very grateful to ATM for giving the average trail runner something to aim for as well. The Grandmaster Quest is a great objective and incentive for me to train for those ultra races!”

— Middle-aged ultra runner in Philippines

2019 - The First Quarter (Q1)

Asia Trail Master End-of-Year Poll: Choose the 'Runner of the Year', 'Event of the Year' , 'Race Director of the Year', 'Favourite trail section of the Year' and more!

As we have come to the end of another season, the fourth in ATM history, we like to get your feedback on all aspects of Asia Trail Master and Asian trail running. And of course, we like to hear from you as well who you see as the best runner or ATM event of the 2018 season. We are also interested in the most popular brands in Asian trail running, and who are the most popular - not necessarily the fastest - runners on the tour.

Participants in the poll who share their email address with us make a chance of winning a free race entry of choice for an ATM-promoted event in 2019. 

If instead you like to stay anonymous, no problem, because anonymous is the default setting. 

Thank you very much for your time.

LINK to the POLL

Singapore-based Italian Alessandro Sherpa has crowned himself as the new Asia Trail Master champion after beating his main challenger Salva Rambla in a straight dual during the Izu Trail Journey in Japan. Sherpa succeeds Malaysian Steven Ong as ATM champion. In the final 2018 ranking, Rambla is second and Japan’s Tomohiro Mizukoshi third. The iconic 72km long Izu Trail Journey itself was won surprisingly by Fuji-homeboy Ko Ito and the returning Yumiko Oichi in the women’s category.

After the Compressport Trail Blazer in Singapore, Salva Rambla had a psychological advantage over a still-injured Sherpa going into the big Japan final. In addition, Tomohiro Mizukoshi was running in the area he grew up in, and not for the first time. As Rambla more or less had to win the race of the ATM championship contenders (only runners who did two ATM races in 2018 are eligible for points in the season’s final), Mizukoshi was announced as the King Maker, who could make life even harder for Sherpa to retain his 130-points-lead in the championship. As last year, Izu Trail Journey was a brilliant ending to our championship, and six runners ranked in the top ten were present at the start line: Sherpa, Rambla and Mizukoshi, but also Diago Gonzales, Kitamura and Sungsik Joh.

The top 3 of the 2018 Asia Trail Master Championship: LtR: Sherpa, Rambla and Mizukoshi

It was cold again on race day, yet nowhere near the arctic conditions of last year when runners even found snow and ice on the way. Alessandro Sherpa had had a good night of sleep apparently, as rather than sitting back and following Salva Rambla he crossed the first checkpoint after km 10 as leader in the race together with former Izu winner Tomohiro Tsuji. Rambla was two minutes back in the main group of favourites. As the terrain became hillier, the local lightweight Japanese runners moved up the leaderboard. Four runners went ahead, with Sherpa and Rambla just behind and Hong Kong-based Frenchman Pierre-Andrew Ferriere gradually edging closer as well. Ferriere is on the Gone Running Team and had been announced as being in top shape for Izu Trail Journey, leading the Hong Kong Strava board in November in terms of elevation gain conquered. His first appearance in an ATM points race will be remembered, as he passed the two championship contenders half-way and continued to push through to eventually find himself as third on the race podium!

Meanwhile, Ko Ito had taken command of the race going up to Nishina Pass at the km 42 mark. Also Ito had made a relaxed start, and overtook everyone ahead of him uphill. However, even the Japanese race directors did not really know who Ko Ito was. Later in the interviews he would explain he hails from the Mount Fuji area and usually finishes races around the top ten rank. However, he had prepared himself meticulously for Izu Trail Journey, an A-goal, with many weeks of speed training, proving again how important that aspect of training is for trail as well. Ko Ito would not run away from the better known runners such as Katsuhiro Matsubara, Nobuya Tani and Tsuji (who clearly was too ambitious trying to follow Sherpa in the beginning), but four minutes was enough to take a unprecedented win.

Ko Ito was the surprise race winner of Izu Trail Journey 2018

Meanwhile, Rambla had managed to overtake Sherpa at some point downhill, raising the pressure on the Italian, who did not know where any of the other ATM runners were. If Rambla came first, and someone else placed himself between him and Sherpa, the ATM championship would go to the Spaniard. However, Rambla’s ‘attack’ did not last very long. Tired of all the traveling over the past weeks, he had to admit not having the best of legs for the final race of the season. Sherpa caught him back uphill and saw the moment. He pressed ahead by himself and opened a gap that later would never be more than a handful of minutes. But it proved enough. As he crossed the finish line as 13th, but first of the ATM championship contenders, he had the title in the bag. Salva Rambla eventually let go at the end and arrived just ahead of Tomohiro Mizukoshi, whose second part of the race was significantly better than his first. While Sherpa enjoyed his title victory after months of hardship (he kept on postponing necessary surgery), Rambla could not hide his disappointment, although in fair sportsmanship.

Behind them, Pablo Diago Gonzales and Hisashi Kitamura had their own fantastic battle going on for fourth place in this year’s championship. Both started the race on equal points, so Izu would decide their final ranking, too. The two runners exchanged positions continuously throughout the race. And just when Diago Gonzales appeared to have got it in the bag, Kitamura sprinted past him again in the last main downhill towards the finish! Caught off-guard, similar to Mantra Summits where he lost the race lead in the final kilometre to Elias Tabac, Diago Gonzales had no response left to the final burst of energy of the amazing Kitamura. Based in Kuala Kumpur, the Japanese runner has only begun to run trails exactly a year ago and has seen his performances grow steadily ever since.

The women’s race was won for the third time by Yumiko Oichi. The local athlete had just returned from a very long injury pause, and was delighted to have come out on top of a great battle with two other runners. Hakuba Trails winner Maki Tanaka was dominating proceedings until two-thirds into the race, when suddenly Oichi and Kaori Asahara returned to the front. Yumiko Oichi had the best final dash. A great run was also delivered by the now-Japan-based Carole Fuchs. After a modest early phase, diesel Fuchs managed to race herself in the top five of the race. She was also first of the runners eligible for ATM points, which puts her in the top ten of the final ranking. Aggy Sabanal from Mindanao, Philippines, was the second woman of her country to finish Izu Trail Journey. A mountain climber and specialist of technical trails, Sabanal can be very happy with her result on the hilly but runable Izu Trail. Her performance also resulted in second place in the ATM Championship ranking, splitting the Indonesians Ruth Theresia and Sri Wahyuni. Not bad for a 22-year-old university student!

Did they have a little tussle: Hisashi Kitamura and Pablo Diago Gonzales for 4th place!

Nagano-based New Zealander Richard Coghlan had a fantastic run to 9th place!

All podium placers together on the podium

Yumiko Oichi won Izu Trail for a third time, but after long injury troubles, this was special

Filipino Aggy Sabanal finished the race as one of the youngest in the field at age 22

Korea’s Sungsik Joh found Izu to his liking, but gastritis gave him a tough day on the trails

The top five of the ATM championship in one pic

At the press and race briefing on saturday afternoon

No Mt Fuji this year: it was too cloudy to adore the mountain on the horizon

For the second consecutive season Izu Trail Journey across Japan’s Izu Peninsula south of Tokyo will decide the outcome of the Asia Trail Master men’s championship. After 35 points races in 15 Asian countries, Alessandro Sherpa and Salva Rambla will battle for the title in a straight dual on the fantastic but challenging 72km course from Matzuzaki to Shuzenji.

Izu Trail Journey is rapidly gaining prestige and fame in the Asian trail circuit since it joined our championship series in 2017. Last year’s edition was of course also historical for its frosty and even snowy conditions. It won’t get that cold tomorrow but for sure wind jackets will be worn by most runners as they line up for the start at 6 a.m. by the ocean. Five of the top six male runners in the Asia Trail Master Championship will be competing against some local Japanese elite and international elites. An important novelty for the season’s final, though, is that ATM points will only be awarded to runners who have done minimum two ATM races this year. This means there will be a race within the race for the ATM protagonists. In the fight for the ATM title, it comes down to this: Sherpa leads Rambla by 130 points, but Rambla can still up his total score by 180 points. It means that no matter what anyone else does tomorrow, Salva Rambla needs to be first (+180 points) or second (+130 points) of the ATM protagonists to have a chance of winning the ATM championship. And then it of course still depends on Sherpa’s own performance. If Salva wins Izu and Sherpa is second, Sherpa wins the championship (2550 points vs 2525 points). If Salva wins and Sherpa finishes third in the race, they both end up with a total of 2525 points: a tie and then we look at the last direct confrontation of the two runners in question, which means Salva would be the new champion. That is of course the beauty of tomorrow’s race: Salva Rambla beat Alessandro Sherpa in Singapore’s Trail Blazer only two weeks go, and if fast-legged Salva were to go ahead solo on the Izu Trail, Sherpa must make sure nobody else of the ATM protagonists runs passed him tomorrow. Enter runners Pablo Diago Gonzales, home runner Tomohiro Mizukoshi, Hisashi Kitamura and Daisuke Kobayashi, to name the most likely ‘spoilers’ for Sherpa in this scenario. Tomohiro Mizukoshi has already been labelled the King Maker, because not only is he at home in Izu and did he run this race last year already, but most importantly, he beat both Rambla and Sherpa on a runable 70k course in Bali in October! Moreover, Mizukoshi needs to watch his rear mirror, too. Hisashi Kitamura is not too far down on ATM points and seems keen to finish the championship season as number one Japanese! Pablo Diago Gonzales ran Izu also last year and is back in Japan to do better. Diago Gonzales hails from Spain just like Salva Rambla: will there be a Spanish alliance? Finally, there is Daisuke Kobayashi: little known outside Japan, but a strong runner with Echigo and Hakuba Trails on his ATM record in 2018: he is in the mix for points tomorrow. Kobayashi finished just eight minutes behind Mizukoshi in Hakuba Trails proving his advanced level. In ultra trail running, it is a cliche that anything can happen and there’s too many scenarios to write down here. Let’s conclude with one that sees Salva Rambla finish as second tomorrow: then Sherpa can allow himself to be fourth only.

We could not have hoped for a better finish of the 2018 season, although it is of course a pity that the injured Milton Amat from Malaysia could not join the final in Japan. Amat would have been another candidate for the ATM title thanks to his great performances this season in four big races, three of which were SuperTrails.

In the battle for the race victory tomorrow, Japan’s elites Kei Kikushima (winner Hakuba Trails, but did not compete in another ATM race this season), Tomohiro Tsuji (winner Izu Trail Journey 2016) and Yuichi Miura rank among the top favourites.

The women’s Asia Trail Master Championship already reached a conclusion two weeks ago with Indonesia’s Ruth Theresia crowned as the new champion. However, Izu Trail Journey still has significance for the places of honour. Philippines’ newcomer Aggy Sabanal will be trying to snatch second place in the ATM championship ranking away from Sri Wahyuni. Sabanal, still just 22 years young and university student, is running her first race outside of her home country. She will try to follow into the footsteps of her compatriot Patricia Ann Morota, who completed the freezing edition of last year as first Filipino in great fashion. A strong runner who will try to finish a remarkable year inside the ATM top 10 is Carole Fuchs. Previously based in Bangkok, the French former IronMan professional and winner of Cordillera Mountain Ultra has recently moved to Japan and has been back in training after her successful but physically draining Mount Everest expedition in May. On a good day, Fuchs might as well aim for the top three in tomorrow’s race and a good race result would in any case propel her into the ATM championship top ten. Yukako Takashima, the winner of Echigo Country Trail this year, will be one of the Japanese elite to beat.

As usual we will be reporting live from the race via our social media channels. The race starts at 6 am local time.

Dinner in Tokyo for the two ATM championship finalists: nobody spiked any soup

The top 3 of the ATM Championship ranking in Tokyo, flanked by Aggy Sabanal and ATM General Manager Kris Van de Velde

Kei Kikushima could win the race

Maki Tanaka is among the women’s favourites

Carole Fuchs at Echigo just after her climbing Mt Everest: she finished second

The last 100 miler of the ATM season in Hong Kong was won by local ultra runner Wong Wai Lun, but only narrowly so. At the very end, he had an advantage of only 20 seconds on Lau Chun Man and Jiang Liangjun. Of the ATM protagonists, Japan’s Hisashi Kitamura was running with the front pack until km 90, when nasty stomach cramps sealed his fate. Kitamura had to DNF and therefore stays sixth in the ATM Championship ranking. A remarkable finisher in ATM context was Brunei’s Ali Ajis Rasil. He completed his 10th Grandmaster distance and is therefore now a 2-star Grandmaster!

Meanwhile in Malaysia, the inaugural Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival took place in Taiping, Perak. A 2019 ATM Candidate Race organised by Ewegene Tan, a renowned ultra trail runner himself. The 70km main race - and all the others - were characteristed by very wet, muddy and slippery conditions that made the trails hardly runable. In addition, many rope sections up or down steep hills were a test of upper body strength for many participants. According to many, the weather of the previous days had made MMTF arguably the toughest ultra race in the country. Plenty of talented runners at the starting line, too. Including Alessandro Sherpa, ATM championship points leader. The Italian has suddenly come under pressure after being beaten in a straight dual by Spain’s Salva Rambla in the Singapore Trail Blazer last week. Rambla announced he was going to Izu Trail Journey and decided to DNS in Taiping to save his energy. Rambla can still become ATM champion now, leaving Sherpa hardly a choice but to travel to Japan as well next weekend. Perhaps with that in mind, Sherpa did not protest to loudly when race officials disqualified him after six hours of racing for officially missing a checkpoint (CP3), which appeared to be the result of a misunderstanding. At that point, Sherpa was trailing the two Sabahan brothers-in-law Daved Simpat and Saffery Sumping. Just behind was Filipino Koi Grey, making his comeback on the ATM circuit after a two-year-absence. Grey later missed a marker, which put him out of contention for the victory. Still, it was a remarkable return for the fashionable and popular pinoy runner, and his fourth place was well-deserved. Australia’s Christopher Koelma was a happy but tired third place, but nobody could touch the two runners from Kota Kinabalu. It was no surprise that Simpat arrived first, with Sumping some minutes down in second. Together with Milton Amat, the Sabahan trail runners could become a major force on the 2019 ATM Championship tour.

In the women’s 70k race we saw the emergence of a new local Malaysian talent, Izzah Hazirah. The 29-year-old from Kuala Lumpur ran to victory in only her second major trail race ever, and her first over an ultra distance. She finished half an hour ahead of Ng Song Hiang and more than an hour ahead of Norzaimee and Grandmaster Adelinah Lintanga. Izzah Hazirah loves mountain hiking, but has no real history as a runner. She has joined Team Malatra and we are looking forward to seeing more of her in the next season.

The fact that MMTF was a very specific trail race was proven by the results of Evelyn Lek and Siokhar Lim as well. Both are solid race winners in this year’s ATM championship series, but both struggled to come to terms with the slippery course in Taiping.

One woman who felt it was fun, though, was Tahira Najmunisaa. Barely six weeks after the birth of her fourth child, Tahira returned to competition and won the short distance race of 15km. She is already looking forward to getting back into to top shape for 2019.

Ali Ajis Rasil is now a 2-star Grandmaster

Credit: adventuredotmy

Credit: adventuredotmy

2-Star Grandmaster Lily Suryani spinning the wheels at night