While the second part of the 2016 Asia Trail Master season still has to commence next week in Vietnam, we have been looking further preparing next year's series over summer. In the past few weeks we have already been presenting a number of confirmed races on our calendar for next year, and now we would like to focus briefly on the 2017 Asia Trail Master points championship. The basic principles remain the same, but a few amendments will nevertheless be introduced as our series keeps developing.

The 2017 points system

The points allocation for the 2017 'championship' will differ slightly from the system used now in 2016. The most important change is that as of next year the best five points results of each runner will count for the final Asia Trail Master championship ranking at the end of the year, and no longer just the best three. A second significant amendment to our points regulation follows popular demand from runners: certain B and C races of a big event with a high degree of difficulty, for example a 100 km race when there is also a 100 miles race, or the Rinjani 60k with a huge elevation gain in itself, will be better rewarded with performance points. This means that the winners of the 100 miles and 100 km races of one and the same event (e.g. Malaysia Eco 100) will both score 400 performance points. However, every finisher of a 100 miles will get an additional 25 bonus points to still have a distinction between the two distances. Finally, and this also as a result of popular demand, in 2017 it will no longer be required for a race to have 42 km in length when the elevation gain exceeds 2000 metres, By opening this door, the Asia Trail Master series will become even more diverse and offer opportunities for all types of trail runners to do well.

From the beginning, the Asia Trail Master points system has been designed to be easily understood on purpose. No algorithms or complicated mathematical formulas, runners should at all times be able to calculate what their approximate points reward will be while they are still racing. We invite you to read the nitty gritty and check the points distribution tables in the dedicated web section, but in a nutshell just remember that everybody scores two types of points:

Finisher points: each runner who finishes a race scores finisher points
Performance points: based on a runner's official result in a race

Also next year a select number of events will receive the SuperTrail label. SuperTrails offer 50 bonus points for finishers on the two longest race distances of the event, which implies they are important for fast and ambitious runners who aim for the championship or a high final ranking in general. The first SuperTrail in 2017 will be Unseen Koh Chang in Thailand on 17/18 February. Then there is still the Abroad Bonus: runners who score points in 3 Asia Trail Master races get a 50-point bonus if 1 of the 3 races took place outside the runner’s country of residence at the time of the race. Our series is not just about competition, it is also about mixing and socialising with each other across country borders.

A final remark on joint finishers. Sometimes you see people arriving at the finish of a race together. While we absolutely have nothing against this form of camaraderie, it could lead to confusion, and complaints, as to who deserves how many performance points. The joint finish can also be tactical gameplay, namely. In the case of a complaint, we reserve the right to consider the race positions of the concerned runners at the last checkpoint before the finish to determine the number of performance points each gets.

The Asia Trail Master ranking will be updated immediately after each race, and published on the ATMs website via http://m.racetimingsolutions.com/rankings , followed by a press release. The points are allocated according to the official race results as provided to us by the local race organiser.

This is not all. A number of new initiatives for 2017 are in the pipeline and will be announced in due course!

The Asia Trail Master series will bring you to picture perfect places also in 2017!

2017 Asia Trail Master series' points championship rules