At midnight, Saturday to Sunday, Dark 45 takes place on the famous Maclehose Trail in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It’s the second HK points race in the 2023 Asia Trail Master Championship series after Lantau 70 in March. Last year, this event signalled the return to trail racing after the covid pandemic, but in 2023 the event is under a new management: The Peak Hunter. That’s the team led by the famous Wong Ho Chun. Many of Hong Kong’s trail stars are signed up, including former ATM Champion John Ellis, who is making a bit of a come back after a long period of injury. Still, Ellis is not hopeful of a top result this weekend, indicating that the road - or trail - to real competitiveness will be long.

In the absence of Jeff Campbell, the man-to-beat will be John Ray Onifa. The Filipino is back at his best level, recently, and only his enthusiasm may propel him to yet another race victory - just a week after winning VMM 50 against Kristian Joergensen. His main challengers are expected to be Ryan Whelan, first and foremost, and also David Longo, Jose Luis Alvelais and Stone Kit Chan.

The women’s race seems more open, but has a lot of contenders for the win. Flora Wing Yee Chin, Angie Yan can dream of it for sure. Man Yee Cheung may be the biggest name on the start list, but she did run and win a tough VMM 100 just a week ago.

One of the great newcomers on the ATM scene last year was Dark 45 in Hong Kong’s New Territories. A nighttime race on the famous Maclehose Trail between Shui Long Wo and Tsuen Kam Au Rotary Park, one of the most popular sections of that long trail. A year ago it was the first bigger event in Hong Kong that was permitted to take place following the covid period. Now it will be organised by a new team, however. The Peak Hunter is a local trail community and charity foundation founded by Hong Kong trail ace Wong Ho Chun, and also including rising trail star AND cancer survivor Angie Yan. Rendez-vous at midnight on Sunday, 1 October.

For Hong Kong trail runners, Dark 45 is the second ATM points race of the 2023 season after Lantau 70 in March. No 9 Dragons yet this season, so for Hong Kongers these two are the only options to score points at home and get potentially qualified for the ATM Championship Final in Indonesia on 2/3 December (minimum two Top 25 race finishes). For non-Hong Kongers, this is a 45k with quite a bit of spice in it as the 2800 hm of elevation gain indicates.

Jeff Campbell was the fastest runner in Dark 45 last season. It was a race that saw the emergence of David Longo as a serious podium contender in any race, and also the renaissance of injury-plagued and then-still reigning ATM Champion John Ellis. Meg Sterling took the women’s victory after a nice battle with Natalie Webster.

Details can be consulted via the Peak Hunter’s Instagram and facebook pages. Registration opens shortly.

The race summary of last weekend’s Lantau 70 in Hong Kong is now available for your viewing pleasure on YouTube and Facebook and here below. In the 10th edition of the classic event, Jeff Campbell managed to beat Alessandro Sherpa and reigning ATM champion Arnie Macaneras in a splendid finishing time. Local favourite Katrina Hamlin won the women’s race ahead of Flora Wing Yee Ching and Aggy Sabanal.

Note: our new telegram channel has apparently been hacked and is currently unavailable..

The 10th ‘physical’ edition of Hong Kong’s classic Lantau 70 had everything you would expect from an exciting competitive trail race. Several victory candidates, both local and foreign, a great and varied course and challenging mixed weather conditions. The races even had to be interrupted for 45 minutes around noon due to a serious thunderstorm with lightning strikes - not what you want when running on open hill ridges. Safety first and kudos to the organisational team of the Trail Hub for managing the situation in an efficient, clear and non-confusing way. There was clearly a plan for such potential situations. As such, races were able to continue without much ado after the storm had passed. For everyone affected, net running times were recorded by chip.

In fact, the first six runners probably never realised that behind them people were instructed to stop running. Jeff Campbell, Alessandro Sherpa, Arnie Macaneras, James Balagot, Hua Zhaohong and “Marc” Marc all passed CP 2 already when the race director made the decision and the storm unleashed its force on the area.

Up until CP2, which was km 28, the battle for the race victory had already been reduced to two of the three top favourites: Jeff Campbell and Alessandro Sherpa. ATM Champion Arnie Macaneras made his debut in Hong Kong and struggled with the traditional “stairs”. The sympathetic Filipino looked strong and was running with them for over 20 km but then had to let go. On the way to CP3 - in the pouring rain - Sherpa also had to admit Jeff Campbell is the ‘stair master’ and the gap opened up in the most technical section of the race, mainly downhill. Running the Hong Kong stairs is indeed a very specific skill.

Campbell opened up a gap of 10-12 minutes, and it says a lot that once passed CP3, Sherpa maintained the same pace as Campbell for nearly the entire rest of the race. Only when he made an unfortunate and quite nasty tumble towards the finish did Sherpa lose more time. Jeff Campbell underlined his great victory with a finish time of 7h34 - the second fastest ever despite the weather conditions! Only China’s global elite Yan Longfei went quicker in 2018 (7h03). It was the Canadian’s 6th ATM race victory as well, which puts him on the same level as Sefli Ahar, Milton Amat, Hisashi Kitamura and John Ellis in the ATM Race Win table.

A bloodied Sherpa came in in 7h57, which is the fifth fastest time ever. The 2018 ATM Champion is also already qualified for the ATM Final this year. Even a smiling Arnie Macaneras’ third-place time of 8h40 is still the 13th fastest of all time - despite him calling the Hong Kong stairs as ‘crazy’ after the finish. Let’s add the surprising American newcomer-on-the-scene James Balagot in fourth place, just seven minutes behind the ATM Champion in 8h48. According to the LT 70 record books, Balagot is now faster on this course than John Ellis and Ryan Whelan, for example.

Fifth place went to Hong Kong’s Kwong Ho Lee ahead of the Belgian ‘Marc’ Marc. Kwong Ho Lee was the first of the runners who got stopped at CP2. Later, he ran the remaining part of the race in a faster time than Marc and -with adjusted race time- ended up fifth in the race result.

The women’s race was tight, and yet one runner seemed always in control: Katrina Hamlin. Living in Lantau and very near to the race venue in Mui Wo, Hamlin felt the pressure from a string of female runners early on, but always came first at the checkpoints. The more the day progressed, the further she would then pull away from the others. A strong win for Hamlin in 9h36 - third fastest female time ever. The battle for second in the end was decided between Aggy Sabanal-Marte and Flora Wing Yee Ching. Both exchanged places a few times, and when it looked Sabanal would get the upper hand, Wing Yee Ching came back and snatched second place by three minutes only. Philippines’ Sabanal - the 2018 vice-ATM champion - struggled with digestive issues, but was delighted with her podium in Lantau 70. Before giving birth, Sabanal was known as a pure mountain climber. Since her comeback to the trails last year, she has also shown ever increasing running pace. Her podium this weekend is testimony to that.

Katia Kucher was fourth ahead of Jinko Takeshige, who both overtook Indonesia’s Ruth Theresia in the latter stages. Theresia’s first ATM race in three years did not go entirely as planned. Early on she was still in the mix for the podium, but then her hip began to hurt. After the finish, the former ATM champion said it’s been an issue since last week and therefore she did not want to push for the remainder of the race.

Warrior look: a nasty tumble towards the finish actually illustrated perfectly Sherpa’s determination to challenge Campbell during the race, also for him resulting in a fantastic sub-8 hour finish time

Winner in the second fastest finish time ever behind China’s Yan Longfei in 2018: Jeff Campbell

ATM Champion Arnie Macaneras found the Hong Kong stairs ‘crazy’ , but still scored podium in a very solid time himself. That also made James Balagot’s performance in 4th and just 7 minutes behind exceptional

Katrina Hamlin was delighted to win her home race at last: she lives in Mui Wo, start/finish venue of LT 70

Flora Wing Yee Ching captured second place by overtaking Aggy Sabanal in the last kilometres

Aggy Sabanal-Marte confirmed once more her leap forward in competitive performance with a podium spot despite significant digestive problems before and during the race. Proof she no longer needs big technical high mountains to score a podium

It’s been over three years since Hong Kong’s trail classic Lantau 70 was announced as a new points race for the Asia Trail Master Championship and finally the weekend has arrived. LT 70 starts at 8:30 am in Mui Wo on Saturday and plenty of great runners will be toeing the line, including local favourite Jeff Campbell and reigning ATM Champion Arnie Macaneras.

It will be the first of two scheduled points races for this season’s ATM Championship ranking, with the second one - Dark 45 - set for 1 October. The start and finish may be beachside, but unfortunately the weather forecast indicates the possibility of rainfall in the morning. This will certainly have its impact on the runners and the technicality of the 70km course, which has most elevation gain and loss in the first half.

Jeff Campbell always starts a 70km race in Hong Kong as the man-to-beat, and it is no different this year. However, the Canadian-born will almost certainly be pushed forward by a wide field of other strong victory contenders. Davao’s Arnie Macaneras - who is now supported by T8 - is keen to show a solid performance tomorrow, three months after his fantastic ATM Championship title win on Mount Apo. As a newcomer, we always need to see first how he will handle the many steps and stairs that are so typical of Hong Kong’s trails, but purely on running pace Macaneras should be a good match for Campbell on a distance of 70 km. 2018 ATM Champion and in great shape lately, Alessandro Sherpa, will also have a few words to say. The Italian has been based in Hong Kong since his victory in Dalat Ultra Trail three weeks ago. Just a week ago, he picked up another win in a local 50k race despite significant digestive issues during that race. Winning Lantau 70 would be a big thing, and we know Sherpa likes this type of challenge. There’s plenty of other podium candidates tomorrow, and who knows one of these pulls of an upset. Switzerland’s Salomon Wetstein has been a Hong Kong trail star for many years now, and he is a previous winner of Lantau 70 in 2019 - the last ‘normal’ physical edition before covid. Furthermore, there’s the likes of Julien Bonnard, Dennis Theodosis and China’s Hua Zhaohong.

The women’s 70km race promises to be a cracker, too. The race victory will be contested between many Hong Kong based top runners and others who have been protagonists in ATM for several years. The 2018 ATM Champion from Indonesia, Ruth Theresia, is back on the ATM scene for the first time after three years. The covid crisis was also for her a big life-changer, and Ruth has had to be a lot more selective in her trail races. Still, she hasn’t lost her competitiveness at all as we can tell from her recent victories in local Indonesian races. Tomorrow she will be up against the likes of Aggy Sabanal-Marte - the still young Filipino who was actually Ruth Theresia’s first runner-up in the aforementioned 2018 ATM Championship season. Aggy has become a mother since then, and just like Ruth been working on the way back to the front of South East Asia’s trail races. As with Ruth, that has translated already in a couple of race wins back home, including MUSPO 100 last July. What struck us last season is that Aggy Sabanal is now more than a strong mountain climber, she has actually developed a good running pace, too. It will be very interesting to see how she fares on Lantau. Dolores Salles is another Filipino who will throw her hat in the ring, and who knows obstacle racer Rozel Vivero produces the upset? Japan’s Tamae Harada is usually in the mix for a podium place, and so is Singapore’s Vincere Zeng - winner of Cameron Ultra 100 last year. Zeng is a busy bee and mainly a high mountain enthusiast, but that Malaysian victory shows she can also run fast. We are curious to discover how local favourites such as Rhoda Cheung, Alice McLeod, Katia Kucher, and Katrina Hamlin will fare against the aformentioned.

We will be reporting live from Lantau 70 from start to finish on our usual ATM channels, including YouTube, subject to connectivity. Absent from tomorrow’s start field is John Ellis, who is out of action with a nasty achilles injury. John will be present, however, and we hope he can share a lot of insight into this race during our video recordings tomorrow.

In addition, 30 elite runners will carry our GPS trackers, so you can follow the action as it happens via https://live.asiatrailmaster.com/2023lantau70/ . The platform works on both mobile and laptop.

The second Hong Kong points race of this year’s ATM season was won by the still reigning men’s champion John Ellis and Ezster Csillag, who finished second overall and first woman. Ultramarathon de Sai Kung in the New Territories had a rather small field of participants on the 58km course, but the quality was there. For Ellis and Csillag it was the ideal form-test before some bigger goals in November and December.

Three weeks ago at the Dark 45 event, Ellis was still struggling quite a bit and had to battle hard to just make it to the podium behind Jeff Campbell and even his Australian T8 buddy David Longo. Last Sunday, however, Ellis looked like he is nearing peak form again as he managed to push till the finish and drop Longo by a margin of 47 minutes no less. Longo himself did not have the best of days, came second, but behind Ezster Csillag, who has just returned back to Hong Kong from her home country Hungary. As an ATM Champion, John Ellis has now got two ATM race finishes under his belt this year, which means he receives a wild card already to defend his title on Mount Apo in December. Ezster Csillag is hoping to secure her spot on Team Asia Expat in one of the coming ATM races, while David Longo is as good as safe to get his place in Team Australia.

The run for third place on the men’s podium was contested between Samuel Lee, Bogdan Onyschenko and Arnaud Courtin. It was decided in Lee’s favour. Second and third female were Filipino Dolores Sales and Siat Tjhui Djie.

There’s still ATM points races every weekend, except on 12/13 November, giving competitive runners a chance to qualify inside their country’s top four or five and get a spot on the team for the ATM Championship Final on Mount Apo in the Philippines on 17 December.

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Three weeks after Ferei Dark 45 we already have the second ATM points race in Hong Kong on Sunday. Ultramarathon de Sai Kung by XTE Events has been on our calendar since the early part of the season, and although the 100 km has had to be scrapped due to the ongoing covid restrictions in the city, the 58 km is the longest real race in Hong Kong in quite some time. The field of participants is not big for this one, but there’s a couple of international stars scheduled to race and collect relevant ATM Championship points in the persons of a.o. John Ellis, David Longo and last-but-not-least Eszter Csillag. The latter has just returned to Hong Kong from her native Hungary in Eastern Europe, following motherhood and a sensational 5th place in UTMB last summer. Csillag has competed on our ATM tour before, winning the 2019 edition of the 100k at Magnificent Merapoh Trail in Malaysia. For the remainder of 2022, supported by T8, she aims to go for the ATM Championship title in December. Qualifying for Team Asia Expat requires ATM points, and UM de Sai Kung looks like the perfect race to open her account.

Reigning ATM Champion John Ellis will be hoping to score better than his 3rd place at Dark 45 this weekend, but in any case will be happy to know that a race finish means automatic qualification for the ATM Championship title race in Philippines on 17 December. Past ATM Champions get a wild card as soon as they have finished two ATM points races in 2022.

It will be very interesting to watch if Ellis can keep up with his fellow-Australian David Longo, who was a very strong 2nd three weeks ago. Longo clearly made a leap forward in competitiveness during the covid years, the question is whether that can result in a first ever ATM race victory.

We will be following the race via our usual channels this Sunday.

David Longo was a strong 2nd in Dark 45 three weeks ago, can he score his first ATM race win this Sunday?

The covid crisis clearly has not had much impact on the running velocity of Jeff Campbell. At last Sunday’s Ferei Dark 45 event on Hong Kong’s Maclehose Trail in the New Territories, Campbell dominated proceedings from start to finish and scored his fourth ATM points race victory in 5h05’. It was the first ATM points race in Hong Kong since The 9 Dragons in February 2019. The Canadian-born was of course quite familiar with the trails, but the fact it was a night race brought an element of uncertainty. In the end, it did not matter. Australian T8 manager David Longo was a very solid second, half an hour behind Campbell, but 23 minutes ahead of his company’s co-founder and reigning ATM Champion John Ellis. Ellis struggled in the early parts of the race with breathing issues on a very hot and humid night in Hong Kong. Never to be underestimated, however, Ellis fought back once again and managed to score the podium by overtaking Dennis Theodosis and Roy Chun Wa Tong in the dying moments of the race that finished in Tsuen Kam Au after more than 3000 metres of elevation gain.

The women’s race was actually more exciting to follow with lots of changing positions at the front. Natalie Webster looked like she could win it, yet Meg Sterling narrowly managed to outsprint her towards the end in 7h49. The podium was completed by Ka Yin Tong.

David Longo impressed with an unthreatened second place behind Campbell but ahead of Ellis and co

A difficult start, but still a podium for John Ellis on what is a short distance for his liking

Ferei Dark 45 was the first ATM points race in Hong Kong since early 2019

It’s been three-and-a-half years since the last edition of The 9 Dragons took place, the last ATM points race in Hong Kong. The cosmopolitan city had already been in socio-political turmoil before covid-19 struck , and still today, Hong Kong is struggling to find its feet in an ever-complex world. Once heralded as the heart of Asian trail running, Hong Kong started its season last month oncemore with hardly any trail event properly scheduled. Permits are issued at the very last minute, causing throbbing headaches for event organisers, who try to keep their legacies and their businesses alive. Today, any race above 50 km still has virtually no chance of going ahead. Covid infections remain too big a concern for the authorities. Yet, mandatory quarantine-upon-arrival in Hong Kong has recently been abolished. That means residents can now travel abroad again without too much hassle upon return. The door is open.

Local organisers make do with what they are permitted to. XTE Events is one of the city’s long-standing companies and is happy to announce two of their events going ahead this month. Starting with Ferei Dark 45 this Sunday, start at midnight. A 45k race on the Maclehose Trail that will see the return-in-action of John Ellis, still the reigning Asia Trail Master Champion. Ellis had zero incentive to try and defend his ATM title in 2020, but now we are two years further down the line and his hunger is very much back. This weekend’s 45k race is normally too short and too fast for him, but the Australian sounds keen to give his best and get his ATM campaign in gear. As a former ATM champion, Ellis only needs to score two ATM race finishes to get a wild card for the ATM Championship Final in December. For the Ellis of 2019, the Mount Apo Sky Race 75k is not an impossible task, especially given that race tactics will likely play a significant role there. To underline his ambition to try and renew his ATM title, Ellis has already booked a plane ticket to Davao himself..

At Ferei Dark 45 this Sunday early morning, Ellis will not rank as the top favourite to win the race. Amongst others, there are Jeff Campbell and Ryan Whelan on the start list. Campbell is as keen as Ellis to deliver a great showing in ATM this season. A former double winner of Tahura Trail in Indonesia and also Sungai Menyala in Malaysia, Campbell is moving up to 70k in a fortnight when he is scheduled to race in Vietnam. Similar to Singapore-based Belgian Vanja Cnops in the women’s competition, Campbell has been almost unbeatable over 30-50k race distances. But his competitive performance going beyond that distance is less certain. If he qualifies for the ATM FInal as part of Team Asia Expat, the speedster is likely going to be the first male runner reaching the foot of Mount Apo.

But this weekend, he has Ryan Whelan to worry about first. Whelan has been the coming-man for a few years, the covid pandemic not helping him. He won UTKC 70k in Thailand in February 2020, which could later turn out to be a milestone in his progress as a competitive trail runner. Whelan was fast during our 7 Missions virtual event in January 2021 and we are all looking forward to seeing his performance this weekend.

Given it’s been well over three years, we are bound to discover some new Hong Kong names appearing this month as well. Ferei Dark 45 and Ultramarathon de Sai Kung in three weeks on 22 October will be closely followed, indeed.

Jeff Campbell will embark on a rather busy schedule with Dark 45 this weekend and VJM 70 in two weeks

Hong Kong runners can look forward to two ATM points races this month as Ultramarathon de Sai Kung has now officially received a permit to be held on the scheduled date of 22 October. This implies that all HK - based runners at least can score 2 race finishes, a first prerequisite to be eligible for participation in the ATM Championship Final in Davao, Philippines, on 17 December.

This coming Sunday, Ferei Dark 45 will be the first Asia Trail Master points race in Hong Kong in nearly 3,5 years following a period of civil unrest and covid. The 45km race will be previewed tomorrow and will be covered via our usual channels as well starting before midnight on Saturday night. XTE Events has now also secured the permit for its other event in the New Territories, UM de Sai Kung, albeit only for the 50k race. Anything longer than 50k is currently still not possible in Hong Kong.

T8 has produced these gems, the Team Hong Kong national country team tee for the ATM Final qualifiers

The 5 male and 5 female runners who score most ATM points will receive an invitation to join the team

There was uproar just before last weekend’s Borneo TMBT Ultra when rumours came out that XTE Events in Hong Kong had secured a permit for a 45k real trail race on the Maclehose Trail on Sunday, 2 October. Several runners in the plagued city contacted us to please have the race as a last-minute addition to the ATM Championship calendar, as it has virtually been impossible for them to race or even leave the city at all. Today, we are happy to confirm that the 45k night race is ON , and that it will indeed be a points race for the ATM Championship ranking, opening the options for plenty of Hong Kong based runners to be part of this year’s ATM Final in December. We are grateful to Mr Felix Shum and XTE Events to make this possible at such short notice, and we are looking forward to a fantastic night of trail running in just under a fortnight from today!

XTE Events is known in our circuit from its HK 168 Ultra event, which was on our calendar until 2018 and until the new date made that too difficult. Earlier this season, it had already been announced that XTE’s other event - Ultramarathon de Sai Kung - would join ATM on 22 October. That event is also still on, albeit only regarding the 50k race. Hong Kong authorities currently still do no allow any race longer than 50km, so the 100K race in Sai Kung won’t happen. Lantau 70 one week later suffers the same fate. Hence, Ferei Dark 45 is a welcome gift for many runners in Hong Kong. At least, there’s the genuine possibility of 2 ATM race finishes, a prerequisite to be qualified for the Asia Trail Master Championship Final in Philippines on 17 December.

The start venue is Shui Long Wo, and the finish the Tsuen Kam Au Rotary Park. The race will be run on the Maclehose Trail in the New Territories. Race start is Sunday midnight, and there’s a very long cut off time of 15 hours. Stay tuned for more news soon. Registration goes via the official website, which you can access via the link below. Of course, the conditions of entry are still more cumbersome than before. Please be aware of these covid-19 mitigation efforts:

• 1. All runners must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 (i.e. receiving THREE doses 14 days before the event day).

• 2. All runners are required to take COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and provide validated negative results within 48 hours before the start of the race.

• 3. All runners must conduct rapid antigen test (RAT) on the event day with their names written on the test device. They need to show the pictures of testing result to the Safety and Hygiene Officers at the start area.

Will we see the long-awaited return of 2019 ATM Champion John Ellis at Ferei Dark 45?

And Veronika Vadovicova, based in Hong Kong since early 2020 when it all started with covid. Will she make a return to the ATM scene?

We are happy to announce a new entry in Hong Kong on our 2022 Asia Trail Master Championship calendar: Ultramarathon de Sai Kung on the weekend of 22/23 October. Organised by the experienced team of XTE events, which also has HK 168 in its portfolio, the second edition of UM de Sai Kung features two race distance categories that both offer points for the ATM Championship rankings. Runners can choose between 105 km with 5200 hm, or 53 km with 2900 hm.

Hong Kong has had a rough battle with covid-19, as everyone knows, and the situation remains highly sensitive today. It is a good sign, however, that trail events are formally returning to the calendar. Vaccination certificates and a negative PCR test result are still a must-have, and other measures and restrictions to prevent spreading the virus are logically mentioned on the UM de Sai Kung website. Only time will tell if these will all still be strictly necessary come mid-October. Together with Lantau 70, scheduled one weekend later on 29 October, Hong Kong-based runners at least now have two local races to score points and qualify themselves for the ATM Championship Final on 17 December.

Ultramarathon de Sai Kung, takes place on the eastern side of Hong Kong, the so-called backyard of Hong Kong. With 75% of the course on trails and covering two country parks - Ma On Shan and Sai Kung Country Parks, it covers some of the most beautiful scenery in Hong Kong, including unspoilt beaches, remote villages, nature trails, reservoirs, undulating and steep hills. The course maps and details are added below.

The 2019 edition of the 105km race was won by Thomas Robertshaw in the men’s and Lora Chau Ying Wong in the women’s. The half distance saw Ngan Li victorious ahead of early years’ ATM protagonist Isaac Yuen Wan Ho and Wing Yan Lau in the women’s.

All details and registration for the UM de Sai Kung can be found on the official website below.