Hong Kong’s John Ellis was a sensational winner of the men’s Vietnam SuperTrail in Dalat in the Central Highlands. He ran past Hisashi Kitamura from Japan in the final uphill of the last 4 km on sheer determination! Ellis’ came in in a time of 7:03, a new course record. Early leader and last year’s winner Quang Tran lost the right trail after approx 55 km and dropped back behind his closest chasers. Shortly afterwards he decided to DNF. 

Hong Kong-based Australian Ellis had taken a typical conservative start, before turning on his engine just before halfway. As ATM Championship leader Ander Iza Rekakoetxea retired at Checkpoint 2 with an upset stomach, Ellis and Kitamura have also become 1-2 in the updated ATM Championship ranking. Kitamura can’t be far away from his first ATM race victory now! For Ellis it was his second and first of the 2019 season.

The third step on the podium was for Malaysia’s Mohamed Affindi, the winner of Tahura Trail in Bandung. Excellent for his ATM Championship ambitions. Fourth came the rejuvenated Michael McLean, the Brunei-based Canadian who has had a tough few months on the trails with DNFs in UTCR and 9 Dragons. Gone Running’s Henri Lehkonen took fifth in his ATM debut , followed by Thailand’s Sukrit and Guillaume Degoulet from France. T8’s Mark Green was 8th and Ho Chi Minh City based Britain Grant Bowdery was next in 9th place followed by Vietnam’s Ngo Quoc Duong 10th, first runner of the home country.

The women’s race (finish video scroll down or go to our video section on Facebook) developed into the big dual between Tahira Najmunisaa and Kim Matthews, after all. Both former ATM Champions came into the Dalat race with legitimate fitness concerns, but they delivered a great running pace and honest competition. Tahira was leading until just over halfway, when Kim Matthews caught her and passed her. The Australian made it a double victory for her country after John Ellis won the men’s. Tahira crossed the finish line in second place about seven minutes behind. Another Malaysian, Christine Loh, scored her second third place of the season after 9 Dragons. Both SuperTrail podiums, also. Korea-based Carrie Jane Stander was fourth, her best race result of the season and certainly good enought to regain the ATM Championship lead ahead of Christine Loh.

New Grandmaster Ekin Hoe (Singapore)

New Grandmaster Richard Akol (Phlippines)

The Dalat Ultra Trail in Vietnam is the 3rd SuperTrail in this year’s Asia Trail Master Championship and the first ever in the country. Taking place in the cool Central Highlands city of Dalat, northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, the event has witnessed a spectacular growth in just two years. After last year’s successful inaugural edition, numbers now boomed to nearly 4000 runners for the varous distances on the programme, of which the 70K is what matters for the ATM Championship. A lot of regional top runners will be at the start at 4 a.m. on Saturday, including Malaysia’s Tahira Najmunisaa, who is returning to the ATM scene after nearly one-and-a-half years. 

Initially, 2018 male ATM Champion Alessandro Sherpa had also been announced as to open his points account in Dalat, but the Italian sent around a message this morning that he is unable to travel to Vietnam due to other commitments. Plenty of top runners left, though. Local hero Quang Tran was the winner last year and can certainly be expected to challenge for victory again. After Cao Ngoc Ha switched to triathlon, Quang Tran - a former winner of Vietnam Mountain Marathon as well - has become the most prominent Vietnamese trail runner. This Saturday he will be up against serious competition. Tahura Trail race winner Mohamed Affindi is aiming for his second consecutive victory on a course that should suit him as much as the one in Bandung two months ago. Dalat is almost 30 km longer than Tahura, though. Can the Malaysian keep up his fast pace over that distance? While Affindi will be running his second ATM points race of the season, a few will be doing their third already. Among those also last weekend’s CMU protagonists Ander Iza Rekakoetxea, John Ellis and Hisashi Kitamura. Manila-based Spaniard Rekakoetxea is the current points leader in the ATM Championship with a narrow margin of just 14 points over Ellis. Kitamura is 99 points behind, but in Dalat can reduce that gap significantly. A 2:38 marathon in Tokyo recently suggests that KItamura has become one of the fastest legs on the tour. Applying that speed to trail is always still something else, but Dalat is clearly less technical than CMU last Sunday, in which the Japanese finished 7th. 

Others to watch out for on paper are Thailand’s Sukrit Kaewyoun and Hong Kong-based Fin Henri Lehkonen, together with many local Vietnamese runners who can cause an upset. 

Julia Nguyen Thi Duong won VJM 70 and came 2nd in Dalat last year

In the women’s we have two former ATM Champions on the come back trail, and another one trying to regain the lead in the current Championship standings. 2016 Champ Tahira Najmunisaa has been back in action since several months, but Dalat will be her first major international trail race since the birth of her fourth child last October. Still only 29, Tahira is unbeaten in 10 ATM races and shares the all-time record with Ruth Theresia. She is therefore a logical race favourite, even when 2017 Champion Kim Matthews is also on the start list. After winning last year’s Tahura Trail, Matthews suffered a bad hip injury that put her out of action for almost a full year. As Tahira, she has been building up speed and strength again in the past three months and Dalat will be her first international test as a competitor for race wins. Now based in Hong Kong, Kim used to live in Ho Chi Minh City and is therefore familiar with Vietnam. 

Korea-based Canadian Carrie Jane Stander is one of the busy bees this season and will be competing in her third ATM race out of five already. Championship leader until last week, when Cheryl Navarro took over, Stander can regain the points lead on Saturday if she scores another good result. Possibly her biggest competitior for the points lead will be another Malaysian, Christine Loh. She scored a fantastic third place in the 9 Dragons 50/50 at the beginning of February. Stander will like Dalat, however, and let’s remember that she won Ijen 70, another runable 70k course! 

Vietnamese runners Julia Nguyen Thi Duong and Vy le Phuong have scored podium places in several ATM races in the past years and can certainly be expected to do so again. Julia of course won the Vietnam Jungle Marathon last year and came second behind Dutchwoman Marieke Dekkers here in Dalat. Dekkers, by the way, does not feature on the 70k start list so far. 

Kim Matthews: coming back after a year of injury misery

Tahira Najmunisaa: coming back after the birth of her fourth child

Can Mohamed Affindi double-up after his great Tahura win in January?

Last year’s Dalat Ultra Trail winner Quang Tran is again one of the race favourites

The phenomenal success of Dalat Ultra Trail in Southern Vietnam has not escaped our attention at Asia Trail Master, and we are therefore happy to announce that the 2019 edition, scheduled for 16 March, will be the Vietnam SuperTrail in the Asia Trail Master Championship series! Dalat Ultra Trail is expecting 3500 runners next season, split up over four race distances, and the 70 km is the one that matters for the Asia Trail Master Championship contenders and those on the Grandmaster Quest.

DUT, as the event is known in its abridged form, received a major boost in participant numbers this year and runners proclaimed themselves to be very happy with the event weekend in the cool Central Highland city, roughly in-between Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Nha Trang (the famous beach resort area). The 70 km makes one big loop through pine forests and coffee plantations and is generally quite runnable. Nevertheless, these are the Central Highlands, so you can also expect 2000m of elevation gain.

Registration numbers went through the roof very quickly as soon as they opened. For the 70k, runners are also advised to sign up quickly online via : https://123go.vn/dalatultratrail/checkout

Dalat Ultra Trail will therefore be the 3rd SuperTrail of the 2019 Asia Trail Master Championship, after The 9 Dragons Ultra in Hong Kong on 1/2 February and Cordillera Mountain Ultra in Philippines on 10 March. Penang Eco will again be the Malaysia SuperTrail, but this time takes place on the third weekend of June following the muslim Holy Month. In Thailand, the SuperTrail label goes to Ultra Trail Chiang Rai after the decision was made that UTKC cannot be held next year. The decision on the Indonesia and Japan SuperTrail is yet to be taken.

The story of Dalat Ultra Trail is really quite amazing. The Vietnamese event in the historical mountain retreat in the Central Highlands between Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang managed to get more than 2000 runners in its inaugural edition last March. And now, the 2019 edition scheduled for 16/17 March has opened registration and within two hours all 500 early bird spots for the 70K sold out yesterday! As of now you can register - until the quota is full - with regular pricing, as well as for the all the shorter distances 42km, 21 km and 10km. Please remember that only the 70 km race is a points race for the Asia Trail Master Championship.

Dalat Ultra Trail is organised by 123Go Vietnam and is again proof that you do not need ‘the toughest course’ to attract people. The terrain in and around Dalat has just over 2000m of elevation gain on the 70km, but can be generally characterised as runable. You will be running through pine forests, open meadows, across hills and coffee plantations. Of course, a major plus is that Dalat has a cool climate away from the heat and humidity on the coast, and it is a tourist place with lots of sites and attractions, and accommodation options for all budgets. Dalat also has a domestic airport with cheap flights from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Highly recommended, sign up now to secure your spot!

https://123go.vn/dalatultratrail/checkout

The Dalat Ultra Trail last weekend saw the confirmation of the raw talent of Vietnam's own Quang Tran. After winning the Vietnam Mountain Marathon last year, he now also took top honours in Dalat in a great 70k run that took him 7 hours 32. Quang Tran stayed ahead of two European runners: Florian Deichmann (Germany) and Kevin Morisseau (France), who reached the finish in 7:49 and 7:54. HCMC-based Dutch woman Marieke Dekkers, training partner of Asia Trail Master champion Kim Matthews, won the women's race ahead of Vietnam's Julia Nguyen Thi Duong and Philippines' Ann Jilian Pulanco. 

2300 runners took the start over the four available distances in Dalat, of which 70K was the longest and the one that counted for ATM championship points. The event received praise from participants for its great organisation and a pleasantly runable, yet tough enough race course. The highlands around the city of Dalat are relentlessly going up and down. 

Kim Matthews, who of course lives nearby in Ho Chi Minh City, has not yet recovered from her dramatic fall a few weeks ago and was unable to start what could be called her home race. The good news was that Matthews did the 21k, albeit hiking for the most part. 

The next Vietnamese points race is the Vietnam Jungle Marathon in Po Luong on 14/15 April. 

Quang Tran and Marieke Dekkers: winners of the Dalat Ultra Trail 70k

Julia Nguyen Thi Duong was second in the women's, with Ann Pulianco third. 

The Vietnam Mountain Marathon has been a successful trail event for a few years already, but the Dalat Ultra Trail in the south of the country proves that the sport has boomed. More than 2300 runners will take part in Dalat this weekend, and a lot of them are not afraid of tackling the 70 km long ultra, the ATM championship points race and a Grandmaster Quest distance as well. It is the first year the event has an international scope and given the exciting location -Dalat is hot on the tourist trail in Vietnam- it has all the ingredients of becoming one of Asia’s finest. 

The organisation is in the hands of a well-oiled team that has plenty of experience in outdoor and mountainbiking events. Some of the participants this weekend will actually stay in Dalat and take part in the 2-day MTB event here as well next week. The 70 km race is of course top of the bill. It's a nice highland rollercoaster that will please good runners who can cope with lots of intervals. Resilience and determination will arguably be even more important than speed to win this one. The weather in Dalat is generally cooler than elsewhere as the place is at 1500m altitude.  

One of the ambassadors of the event is Asia Trail Master champion Kim Matthews, who lives in nearby Ho Chi Minh City. Unfortunately, Matthews injured her hip quite badly before the Cordillera Mountain Ultra and is still unable to run distances, let alone race. As such, the women’s race is quite open and we are looking forward to potentially discovering new local talents. 

In the men’s race we have a clear favourite on paper: Danang’s Quang Tran. Winner of Vietnam Mountain Marathon 100 - ahead of Manolito Divina - and 2nd in Vietnam Jungle Marathon last season. In the latter race he was beaten by his compatriot and Vietnam’s Trail Master champion 2017 Cao Ngoc Ha. Cao is not running this weekend, the tall Hanoi runner is focusing on an IronMan in May before returning to the trail scene. With four races in Vietnam this ATM season, a runner like Quang Tran has a great opportunity to make a name for himself throughout Asia. 

The leadership position of Dean Perez and Majo Liao in the Asia Trail Master championship should not be under threat this weekend, unless there’s a last-minute registration of someone who already has scored a significant amount of points this season. Their points lead will certainly be under attack next week in Brunei, however.