VMM: European winners in Sapa

THe 100 km race distance of the Vietnam Mountain Marathon was won by two European runners in the male and female categories: Petr Novotny from Czech Republic, and Nathalie Cochet from France. They both had a clear advantage over the next runners, who were both locals from Vietnam: Cao Ngoc Ha and Chi Nguyen. As expected, the race was tough with 34 finishers in total. This includes China's Wang Xin, Denmark's Caster Nielsen, Malaysia's Syed Abdul Rahim and  Brunei's Ali Ajis Rasil, all of whom had scored Asia Trail Master points before this year and will thus move up in the ranking.

There was another French winner on the classic 70km distance in Sapa: Team Uglow's Antoine Epinette was a good 17 minutes faster than American Cory Lewandowski. The female winner came from Japan: Sayaka Matsumoto proved outstanding and gave the opposition no chance. Canada's Amber Lane was second and Hong Kong's Cherrie Chung third. Interesting from an Asia Trail Master points perspective was the 7th place of another Hong Kong runner Jocelyn Cheung. 

The Asia Trail Master points championship continues next week in South Korea with Ultra Trail Mount Jiri.