We are happy to announce the latest ATM Candidate Race that will in fact take place very soon at the end of this month. The Kadamaian Ultra in Kota Belud in Sabah, Malaysia, is part of a bigger adventure race festival and is a new addition to the calendar in the home area of renowned trail runners such as Milton Amat, Wilsen Singgin, Daved Simpat and the Lintanga sisters. Officially called the High 5 KAR Ultra, the main race is 70 km in length and has an elevation gain estimated at 3250 hm. As you can see in the course map below, it’s quite an organic loop with the highest peak coming in the middle. Start and finish is at Kg. Malangkap Baru, Kadamaian in Kota Belud, roughly one hour north of Kota Kinabalu. The race start is planned for 6 am. Shuttle busses will take runners from Kota Kinabalu, but be aware you need to sign up for the bus via a google form on the website (see button)

As the event takes place in 3 weeks, race registration is already closed, but ATM can make two runners happy with a free race entry still now! Stay tuned for details on how to win the entry later today.

KAR ultra website

kar ultra bus service

Kris Van de Velde7 July 2022kar, malaysiaComment

Mantra: Wismoyono flies while Vietnamese duo controls 116K

Mantra Summits Challenge in Malang, East Java, once more confirmed its reputation as the toughest event on the Asia Trail Master Championship calendar. Heavy rainfall on Saturday night plagued runners even more and turned the 116k and 75k marquee races across Mount Welirang, Arjuno and Mahapena into a brutal adventure resulting in a long list of DNFs. Up front, however, we saw some fantastic performances, too. The Vietnamese duo of Quang Tran and Nguyen Si Hieu - in their first race in Indonesia - controlled the 116k race together from the ascent of Arjuno (3300m) onwards, even though Yusuf Aprian was keeping them wide awake throughout the night. On the 75k race, 2015 Asia Trail Master Champion Arief Wismoyono showed incredible speed reminiscent of his most successful years and at the mature age of 38 is clearly back at his best level.

After the start at Kaliandra Eco Resort at 5am, participants on the 116k immediately had to climb up Gunung Welirang with the summit above 3000m altitude. It was the surprising Hadi Mustofa who reached the summit first in 2h59’23”, followed by Yusuf Aprian and Rachmat Septiyanto. Quang Tran, Nguyen Si Hieu and Fuminoro Kondo were not far behind. Local dark horse Fauzi Imdadur unfortunately sprained his ankle and decided to quit the race after Welirang already. Also the Jakarta-based Japanese runner Kondo was compelled to slow down, having entered the race with a swollen foot already. Vietnam’s Trung Nguyen was going to play the long game, but the rain on Saturday night turned his Mahapena ascent and descent into a nightmare and he never managed to feature among the frontrunners. His countrymen Quang Tran and Nguyen Si Hieu on the other hand shifted to a higher gear on the alternative climb up Welirang and onto the highest summit of Arjuno. It’s essentially where they won the race. At the summit, they had nearly 30 minutes on Yusuf Aprian and an hour on Hadi Mustofa and Rachmat Septiyanto. Still, their victory was not yet in the bag because Bandung’s Yusuf Aprian, winner of the 75k in 2019 and the 55k in 2018, was not letting them get away any further and was matching their running pace for the next several hours. On Mahapena at night, Aprian made a brave and big effort to try and catch the Vietnamese. Quang Tran and Nguyen Si Hieu saw that while leaving the checkpoint at the summit and going back down Mahapena (it’s an out-and-back section). Their acceleration ended the hopes of Yusuf Aprian to take the victory. Just after sunrise on Sunday morning, the duo arrived back at Kaliandra Resort and crossed the finish line together. When Heru Prabowo, event director, asked them who had earned the ‘gold medal’ most, Nguyen Si Hieu insisted that Quang Tran did. Their finishing time of approx 25 hours is very impressive, yet Sabah’s Milton Amat was one-and-a-half hours quicker in 2019. Nguyen Si Hieu collects another 450 ATM Championship points to add to his 425 from Dalat in March: he is the new points leader in Vietnam. Yusuf Aprian took third place about an hour later, a great and robust run by the runner from La Sportiva Indonesia. Rachmat Septiyanto took fourth. Grandmaster and local hero Shindy Patricia was the only woman on the 116k this year, so all she had to do was finish the race to take the win and the ATM Championship points that come with it. Shindy did that in style and certainly did not hold herself back. She returned to the resort in just over 31 hours.

The 75k race essentially saw the return of Arief Wismoyono to peak form. The 2015 ATM Champion, now age 38, stormed to victory as he boomed down Welirang and Arjuno with incredible speed and skill. Nobody could or dared to follow him. Only Taofik Hidayat, also from Bandung, was able to limit the gap somewhat by checking in 30 minutes behind Wismoyono at Wenerejo before going up Mahapena. However, the leader was on a mission to make a big performance statement and was just flying on the last of the three major ascents of this race. Hidayat was able to retain his second place and steadily increase the gap to the rest of the podium candidates led by Thimo Kilberth, Nhon Trong, Pablo Diago Gonzales and Hammam Aulia. The Mahapena climb proved too much for Nhon Trong, first at Welirang summit earlier in the race. The fast Vietnamese runner had made quite a few tumbles in the descents and with his poles broken as well felt the energy was leaving his body. Halfway up Mahapena, he took a scooter back down. No extra points for the ATM ranking after his second spot in Dalat last March. Surprisingly, Mahapena was also the end station for Pablo Diago Gonzales, 3rd in 2017, 2nd in 2018. The Singapore-based Spaniard did not have an ideal preparation this season, and the 75k of Mantra turned out to be still a bridge too far. As he was struggling while coming back down from the summit to the Wenerejo checkpoint Pablo decided to DNF. Despite the strong effort of new name Hammam Aulia, Bali-based German Thimo Kilberth was quite safe and collected his second ATM third-place podium finish of the season after BTR Challenge in May. Visibly marked by his effort, Thimo was happy to strengthen his position as leader in the ATM Championship ranking in Indonesia.

The women’s 75k race was won by Siti Nairuni, who led the majority of the race. Sianti Candra and the highly experienced Novita Wulandari were keeping some pressure on, and Candra actually managed to come closer to Nairuni in the late stages of the race. Great to see two new Indonesian names on the podium.

Only 17 finishers on the 75k from 75 starters showed how tough the day had been. The finisher rate was higher on the 116k, with 23 out of 46. 2018 ATM Champion Ruth Theresia continued her comeback to peak form by winning the non-ATM 55k race category on Sunday.

Lots of multimedia material is available on our Instagram and Facebook channels.

Quang Tran ran his first race in Indonesia

Quang Tran and Nguyen Si Hieu stayed together and cruised to victory on the brutal 116k course

Grandmaster Shindy Patricia was the only woman on the 116k, but was not holding herself back at all

The women’s 75k podium with Siti Nuraini in the middle

2015 ATM Champion Arief Wismoyono is clearly back in his best form since years

Kris Van de Velde4 July 2022indonesia, mantraComment

SUUNTO Official Sportswatch of Asia Trail Master 2022

We are delighted to announce our latest premium partnership, as SUUNTO becomes the Official Sportswatch of the 2022 Asia Trail Master Championship series. Suunto, global leader in sports watches, dive computers and precision instruments.

Suunto GPS watches are designed and made in Finland in northern Europe with 100% renewable energy.

Inspired by the award-winning SUUNTO 9 Baro, the SUUNTO 9 Peak is designed for adventures and peak experiences, in a sleek form factor that fits seamlessly on the wrist for ultimate comfort.

Tested in the harshest conditions, the SUUNTO 9 Peak boasts up to 170 hours of GPS recording capacity in Tour mode, blood oxygen measurement, a full battery charge in one hour and built to match users’ high expectations for a sports wearable companion, training tool and adventure partner. The SUUNTO 9 Peak, the thinnest, most powerful and uncompromisingly durable watch in brand history.

The SUUNTO 9 Peak comes with all of the industry leading features the SUUNTO 9 family is known for: 80-plus sport modes like running, hiking, mountain biking, skiing and swimming, customizable screens to show the most relevant data for your exercise, an intelligent battery management system, accurate wrist-based heart rate monitoring, in-depth weather insights and expansive on-watch navigation capabilities.

Building on the success of the recently released Suunto 9 Peak, Suunto today released its sibling, the Suunto 5 Peak GPS sport watch, designed for outdoor fitness lovers looking for a light, compact, durable, and long-lasting partner to guide them towards reaching their fitness goals, but one that requires less financial investment to buy. The Suunto 5 Peak is an evolution of the older Suunto 5 model. The new watch is 41% lighter than its forbear, is sleeker due to the absence of the older model’s GPS nose, offers up to 100 hours of battery life, handy music controls on the watch, automatic, over the air software updates and features Suunto’s new design language, and a selection of easily changeable accessory straps to suit individual style.

The SUUNTO App integrates with the SUUNTO 9 and Suunto 5 Peak, enabling users to effectively plan routes with sport-specific heatmaps and popular starting points, which can be built and transferred to the watch for offline navigation. The mobile app allows user to discover new locations, create points of interest and a look back on previous adventures with personal heatmaps.

Syncing routes to your watch is quick and hassle-free. With built-in GPS and turn-by-turn navigation on your watch you are never lost and know exactly where to go. If you need to find your way back, the breadcrumb feature will quickly show you the way.

Now featuring SuuntoPlus™ and SuuntoPlus™ Guides to enhance your experience even more! Train or race with features that will provide you with invaluable information like weather insights and safe GPS coordinates, and on top you can now get personalized real-time guidance during your activity.

About SUUNTO: We stand for adventure. Pioneering exploration has been in our DNA since 1936, when Finnish orienteer Tuomas Vohlonen set out to create a more accurate compass, and subsequently invented a new method for manufacturing liquid‐filled compasses. Today SUUNTO is at the forefront of design and innovation for sports watches, dive computers and instruments used by adventurers all over the globe.

Eighty-five years from our founding, we are proud that SUUNTO products can take a beating, but are also designed with an everyday aesthetic that reflects our Nordic identity. SUUNTO’s headquarters and factory are still in Finland.

SUUNTO will be supporting a number of targeted ATM events in the busy second half of this season VII with booths and prizes, and the Top 5 in the male and female Asia Trail Master Championship in December will win a genuine SUUNTO Sports watch as well.

check the suunto 9 collection

find out about suuntoplus

Kris Van de Velde2 July 2022suunto, sponsorComment

Vietnamese elites to challenge locals and Pablo Diago

This weekend arguably the toughest mountain trail race of the Asia Trail Master Championship season takes place in East Java, Indonesia: it’s the 4th edition of Mantra Summits Challenge in Malang with start and finish at the Kaliandra Eco Resort. The two longest race distance categories, the 116k and 75k, are both points races with equal status for the ATM rankings, which naturally implies some of the top runners favour to start one or the other. As it happens, both retain a strong field of competitors - especially in the men’s races.

That is largely due to the important participation of six elite trail runners from Vietnam, indicating once again that the country is becoming a powerhouse on Asia’s trail scene. Leading the pack is Quang Tran, who has been the benchmark in Vietnam since the advent of competitive trail running over there. He is tackling the 116k and its gruelling 8500m of elevation gain. If you wonder just how tough and technical this 116k race is, just look at the finishing times of the 2019 edition - the last one before covid. Milton Amat won it by nearly four hours (!) over… Hisashi Kitamura in 23 hours and 23 minutes. It sounds like it is 200 km, but it is really “just” 116 kilometres.

Let’s hope for their sake that the Vietnamese runners, and the other internationals and Indonesians of course, know what awaits them. Perhaps the videos of previous race winners that we have been posting all week on our social media channels may give them some inspiration, or indeed, warning.

Former winner of the Vietnam Mountain Marathon in Sapa, Quang Tran will be flanked by his compatriots Dang Hieu Nguyen and his, perhaps, better-known brother Trung, Van Da Bui and Hieu Nguyen Si - this year already third in Dalat Ultra Trail. They will compete against some of the most reputed Indonesian trail runners such as 2019 winner on the 75K and 2018 winner on the 55k, Yusuf Aprian. His teammate at La Sportiva Indonesia, Rachmat Septiyanto finished just outside the podium three years ago and will be looking to make that up - also being more experienced running mountain ultras now. A dangerous veteran of Indonesian trails and former winner of Ijen Trail, Dzaki Wardana, proved he is in very good shape again just about three weeks ago by winning a 70k race against the likes of Thimo Kilberth and Fauzi Imdadur. The latter is also on the start list of the 116k and on this kind of highly technical entreprises for sure a podium candidate. Last but not least, what can Japanese runner Fuminori Kondo do at Mantra? Two Japanese women already won here, can Kondo be the first Japanese man to do so?

Asuka Nakajima won the women’s 116k race in 2019, the year she ended being third in the Asia Trail Master Championship. Nakajima will be succeeded by Shindy Patricia… if the local hero manages to finish, of course. Shindy is the only woman on the start list this year. Another sign of the trend that sees trail runners prefer shorter distances nowadays? In 2019 we still had Nakajima, Siokhar Lim and Surabaya’s Sri Wahyuni on a complete women’s podium. For the in-form Shindy Patricia, it is therefore just about finishing this weekend and collect not only the victory, but also the 500 ATM Championship points that will already bring her a good way forward towards being part of Team Indonesia in this year’s ATM Championship Final on 17 December.

Over to the 75k race, where we will find another Vietnamese top runner, Nhon Trong. Nhon Trong was second in Dalat Ultra Trail last March and has continued to be active since. A smart runner with regional trail experience, Nhon Trong could be the most dangerous favourite for the race victory given his fast running pace. He will be joined by his compatriot Duc Pham. They will be up against Singapore-based Spaniard Pablo Diago Gonzales, a regular at Mantra. On the podium twice but never as winner, and a DNF in 2019. Pablo Diago Gonzales plays down his chances, but he has seen the scenery of Mt Welirang and Arjuno already… It’s a brutal course, even the 75k, and when Pablo feels good they will need to pass him to win. There’s plenty of strong Indonesian runners as well. 2015 ATM Champion Arief Wismoyono is going well this season and long and high mountain climbs are his territory. Also from Bandung is Taofik Hidayat. Still relatively unknown outside Indonesia, but locally he has turned into a ‘one-to-beat’. Alan Maulana is a quick runner, always capable of a surprise. Thimo Kilberth, German but living in Bali for a long time already, has been prepping for this race and could be the dark horse. Kilberth is fast on the flat, but has improved a lot in the long mountains and … the 3000m altitude temperatures will probably please him more than most of the other podium candidates. Kilberth was third in Batur Trail Running Challenge in May already this Championship season.

Furtunately, there’s quite a few women on the start list of the 75k. There does not seem to be an outspoken favourite, but Novita Wulandari is a name of a very experienced trail runner always good for a podium. Singapore-based Malaysian Nicole Ng is another candidate. As always in trail running, maybe we will be surprised to see a new face emerging as well this weekend.

Asia Trail Master is in Malang and will be providing live race coverage as usual via our ATM social media pages on facebook and instagram in particular. The 116k race starts on Saturday morning at 5 am local time, the 75k runners are let go one hour afterwards.