Vadovicova first foreigner to win Izu Trail Journey!

John Ellis winning the ATM title in Thailand on Saturday seems to have inspired several other runners to excel in Japan during Sunday’s classic Izu Trail Journey. Veronika Vadovicova took an unprecedented victory as a non-Japanese athlete on the 68km course from Matsuzaki to Shuzenji Onsen Town in a time of just over 7 hours, cementing her position as the leading candidate for the women’s Asia Trail Master title to be decided at the TNF Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival next weekend. Hisashi Kitamura adjusted his mindset timely, switched goals and succeeded in scoring a Top 10 placing in the men’s race - a feat no man directly competing in the ATM Championship had achieved previously.

Two months ago one of the country’s biggest typhoons of the last decade swept through the Izu Peninsula and destroyed a lot of the nature and hiking trails in the process. To the extent that afterwards, Izu Trail event organiser Tatsuo Chiba sent out a warning that his famous event, which is seen as a national team qualifier, may need to be cancelled this year. His team’s hard work and creativity paid off, though. The route of the 72km race had to be changed considerably by shortening it by four kilometres and replacing damaged areas with road sections, but at least the race could go on with these amendments. As the weather and temperature last Sunday turned out to be close to ideal after the early morning chill, the race -a runable 68km and 3300hm- was faster than ever before.

Izu Trail Journey is the Japan SuperTrail and therefore stimulates some of the ATM Championship contenders to chase those bonus points. Especially Veronika Vadovicova, making her return to the circuit after moving back to Slovakia following her race win Vietnam Jungle Marathon in May. The 29-year-old wants to get the title, but finds herself under some pressure by Christine Loh and Asuka Nakajima. Both have been piling up points and winning races in her absence. Despite some knee worries, Veronika was therefore determined to collect the 550 points and put on a good show in Japan, knowing how competitive races are in the land of the rising sun.

After 16km, lauded Japanese trail star Shunsuke Okunomiya, winner of Echigo Country Trail last year, was in the lead by himself, closely followed by Yutaro Yokouchi and the colourful Jumpei Yamaguchi. Yokouchi was announced locally as the man to beat, a marathon runner with a PB of 2:09... Tamaguchi is a newcomer to the scene and one who makes an impression by more than his great running ability. Hisashi Kitamura was in the top 20 at this point, with Tomohiro Mizukoshi not far behind him. The Roppongi runner is back 100% fit and showed himself very upbeat before the race. Mizukoshi is fourth in the ATM Championship ranking and will try to get in the top 3, like he managed last year. Veronika Vadovicova was already leading, but the experienced Yumiko Oichi stayed close. Tokyo-based French mountaineering woman Carole Fuchs, the impressive winner of the Cordillera Mountain Ultra last year, looked strong in third place at this point. However, not long afterwards Fuchs began to feel cramped up and stopped her run. Having just returned from another mountain expedition in Nepal, she did not have the best preparation for a fast trail run like Izu. Meanwhile, Maki Tanaka, the winner of Hakuba 2018, turned out to be a DNS.

At the incredibly scenic Nishina Pass, Okunomiya had been reeled in and passed by Yokouchi, with Tamaguchi and Hirokazu Nishimura. At the checkpoint, km 41, we had an interesting situation with hindsight. A confused Yokouchi spent quite some time looking for his personal food, Tamaguchi decided to have a longer break - inexperience? - and Nishimura saw all that and continued running straightaway without stopping! This put him suddenly in the lead with a nervous Yokouchi chasing him. Tomonori Onitsuka then took third place as Yamaguchi was slow to leave the checkpoint and aid station. Kitamura arrived here in 12th place. Veronika was 28th overall and together with Tomohiro Mizukoshi, but Yumiko Oichi was still only 10 minutes behind her.

The last 27km on the rolling hills with breathtaking views on Mt Fuji saw a great battle between Nishimura, from Kansai, and marathon ace Yokouchi. In the end, Nishimura had the upper hand and won the race in 5:53, seven minutes ahead. Onitsuka claimec third in 6:08. Yamaguchi still had to give fourth place away to Tomohiro Machida. Early leader Shunsuke Okunomiya took sixth ahead of Richard Coghlan - a familiar face in Izu and first non-Japanese.

Hisashi Kitamura had dropped to 14th place at the last checkpoint at km 53, but dug deep and incredibly enough managed to accelerate again to catch anc overtake four runners to claim his desired top 10 placing! It was a testimony of the fighting spirit he has displayed all season but also of his continuous improvement as a trail runner. While he was being interviewed, Tomohiro Tsuji - Izu Trail Journey winner two years ago - crossed the finish line in the background... Kitamura’s time: 6:28.

A year ago, Tomohiro Mizukoshi still finished ahead of Kitamura in this race. Now he was 35 minutes behind him. It’s all Kitamura’s improvement, because Mizukoshi ran a solid race at his best level to come in 25th and ahead of Veronika Vadovicova. That did not happen in spring this season... Important for him was also that he beat Daisuke Kobayashi in those final kilometres. Kobayashi was one of the runners eligible for championship points. (Note: ATM regulations stipulate that to score championship points in Izu and UT Panoramic you must have done minimum 1 ATM race this season).

Veronika Vadovicova accomplished a unique feat by winning the women’s race, something no foreigner has done before in this race. Yumiko Oichi kept chasing hard and in the finish the difference was still “only” 14 minutes. Only American top trail runner Laura Kline stayed closer to Vadovicova this season in the Cordillera Mountain Ultra 50k (3 minutes, also due to the Slovakian missing a turn in that race, though). On pure speed, it is hard to see anyone beating her at MMTF. However, to finish first you first need to finish and Vadovicova does sound concerned about her knee, the tough course and the 84km race distance. Plus, UT Panoramic winner Christine Loh is in pole position with 2600 points versus 2530 points. Asuka Nakajima has 2475 and can still reach 2600 if she wins MMTF. Those three will contest the ATM title, as Fredelyn Alberto (2nd in UT Panoramic but behind Loh) and Siokhar Lim (5th in UT Panoramic) can no longer reach the 2600-benchmark set by the Malaysian Pocket Rocket.

ATM#6 and recently crowned Grandmaster Carrie Jane Stander ran to 36th place in Izu and will collect some extra points for her ATM ranking with that result. For Stander it was the last race of the season, as work commitments prevent her from running in Malaysia next weekend.

Finally, worth mentioning here is the fine result from 2017 ATM Champion in 71st place in a time of 8:01. As a true Southeast Asian, Ong suffered from the cold temperatures at the 6:00 am race start (4 degrees), but as soon as he warmed up he executed his own game plan and ran very well to make up fifteen places in the last 13 km! Visibly pleased with his own performance, Steven Ong could create a few surprises next ATM season..