John Ellis is the new men’s Asia Trail Master Champion following his fourth victory of the season at Ultra Trail Panoramic 100 miles in Pai, Thailand. The 42-year-old Australian living in Hong Kong was untouchable last Saturday and left his main rival for the title, Milton Amat from Borneo, behind on the relatively runable course in mostly cool temperatures. Ellis added 125 extra points to his ATM total and with 2775 points he is out of reach for both Amat and Hisashi Kitamura with one race left on the calendar, next weekend’s TNF Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival in Taiping.

Ellis, who is part owner of the popular apparel brand T8, did not want to wait till next week’s ATM Final, fearing its technical 84km course suits his opponents more than him. Only a week ago he suffered a setback, though, when both Kitamura and even local Davao runner Arnie Macaneras beat him in The Punisher on southern Philippines’ Babak Samal Island. As such, Ellis went back home empty-handed, but quickly shifted focus on the Thai race and the 100 miles race, a distance he probably negotiates better than most runners in Asia. Before the weekend, the Sabahan duo of Team Uglow Malaysia, Milton Amat and Wilsen Singgin, were optimistic about their chances to deny Ellis the first two places on the podium. That would drag the ATM title challenge to TNF MMTF and to Milton’s favourite type of trail terrain. But last Saturday, Ellis already quite early looked to have the race under his control, even when fellow Australian Damian Smith, who was not a ATM Championship contender, was still up front.

Thailand’s Yotchai Chaipromma actually led the race in the early stages. That was surprising, yet Chaipromma is one of those Asian runners who has been improving his performance throughout the year. Damian Smith followed and took over at some point, while Wilsen Singgin and Milton Amat were unexpectedly laying back. In fact, Amat had to let Singgin go and had difficulty keeping up with Ellis.

Our beloved Sabahans were apparently not in their element on the trails around Pai. Things got worse when reports came in of Singgin having hurt his knee around halfway. A DNF was being rumoured. The winner of Ultimate 230 in Chiang Rai in October kept on going, however, and eventually would still finish fourth. Now, Singgin’s participation in MMTF is in doubt. The 28-year-old is a raw diamond for trail and ultra running, but doing a 115k road ultra six days before an important trail 100 miler seems a recipe for getting injured. The knee issues of course also prevented him from challenging Ellis when the latter spurred on his engine.

Damian Smith began to feel the effort after 100km, and when Ellis caught him he had no real response anymore. John Ellis therefore had the perfect situation to celebrate his ATM Championship title in the final 50km of the race. He arrived in Pai after 20 hours and 20 minutes, relieved that all his efforts this season had eventually paid off. His current total score of 2775 is also a new ATM record. Throughout the season, he focused mostly on the SuperTrails and collected the 50 bonus points in each, which helps even if you don’t win the race. This is where Ellis had the better of especially Kitamura this season. His Japanese foe beat him twice, but in standard races and not in the SuperTrails.

Milton Amat suddenly found an extra gear in the last 25km and nearly caught Damian Smith still at the finish. The Sabahan will compete with Kitamura and Mizukoshi for second place in the ATM Championship in Malaysia on Saturday. Japan’s Yasuo Watanabe came into the finish behind Wilsen Singgin as a great fifth, indicating his leap in performance.

The women’s ATM Championship was always going to be decided next weekend, but after UT Panoramic we only have three out of five contenders left. Malaysia’s Christine Loh won her third consecutive Thai race and once again by outpacing Fredelyn Alberto. Unfortunately for the Filipino runner, that also meant the end of her title ambition. Nevertheless, she was delighted by finishing her first ever 100 miles despite hallucinations and what have you. Loh, who dropped Alberto after CP3 already in Pai, boosted her points total to 2700 and that’s a number Alberto cannot reach anymore. Even if she wins MMTF - not unlikely given the course - she can maximum hit 2689.

Also Siokhar Lim is mathematically out of the title challenge following her fifth place in Panoramic. “Steel” struggled a bit in the final sections and had to accept Pimprapai Ninsuwan and Montha Suntornwit ahead of her. Mostly this season it was the other way around. Siokhar Lim had a nice price of comfort, however, as she was announced as the winner of the 4 Trails Thailand series ahead of Alberto and Ninsuwan.

Asuka Nakajima and Veronika Vadovicova are the only women left who can dethrone new points leader Christine Loh next week in the final race. Nakajima needs to win in any case, while Loh and Vadovicova have a few more options.

Christine Loh won for the third time in a row and is the new points leader going into the final week of 2019!

Fredelyn Alberto was happy to come second in her first ever 100 miles

Pim Ninsuwan was a fantastic third place: her first podium in an ATM points race

Siokhar Lim won the 4 Trails Thailand Trophy, but lost the chance to become Asia Trail Master Champion

Yasuo Watanabe ran a great 100 miles race and finished fifth no less in 23:53

Also for Grandmaster and Sabah ambassador Jess Lintange it was the first 100 miles race ever: she finished in seventh place!

John Ellis the new Asia Trail Master Champion!