Borneo TMBT 100: Sherpa & Amat to chase Kitamura

Two classic South East Asian trail running races back-to-back now with Borneo TMBT Ultra this Saturday and Vietnam Mountain Marathon next week. TMBT continues to attract a lot of people to Sabah, one of the East Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. It’s an event with a lot of categories, but the 100K remains the flagship and even the most popular one. It is indeed a 100K that many people argue “you can do”. However, this is by no means a walk in the park and besides the tropical humidity, heavy rainfall can cause muddy, slippery trails at all times.

Quite some international trail and spartan stars have been invited to the event this weekend, but nearly all of them are running the shorter distances. Good news for the Asia Trail Master Championship contenders and especially defending champion Alessandro Sherpa, as they can go for the prestigious race victory and the full 500 ATM Championship points whack! In fact, it is something the Italian desperately needs now if he wants to keep his ambition to retain the ATM title alive. Top favourite this weekend, though, must be local star Milton Amat. Currently 5th in the Championship, Milton can become third with a strong result and winning would reduce some pressure in that sense. Winning his home race is in any case Milton’s dream. He already did so in 2017, but that was jointly with … Sherpa (who made his debut as a ultra trail runner back then!). Last year, Milton came in fourth and quite far down on his fellow Sabahan Daved Simpat. Even youngster Wilsen Singgin (who runs the 50k this weekend) finished ahead. Milton Amat of course will excel if the terrain gets rough. He is slightly disadvantaged if the faster legs in the starting field can make their speed to work. In any case, for all contenders staying ahead of ATM Championship leader Hisashi Kitamura will be essential to prevent the Japanese Uglow ace from earning too much of an advantage. And there we have Kitamura’s goal of the weekend rightaway. Three weeks after his stellar show in Merapoh, he cannot improve on his total points tally - 2575 - at TMBT. His fifth and “worst” result is 500 points for 2nd place in the SuperTrails Dalat and Mantra. At TMBT 100, the winner scores 500. But it is important for Kitamura to beat his opponents in a straight dual just in case down the line in Taiping and TNF Malaysia runners end up with the same number of total points.

There’s a question mark behind the participation of another Sabahan star, Daved Simpat, winner of this race a year ago. He returned injured from Europe last week and will see how he feels. Simpat has not run any ATM races so far this season and does not seem to be a title challenger, therefore. There’s a few dark horses, too, mostly expats. Jono Woodhouse, from Australia but living in Hong Kong, could be most dangerous. Stephen Dundon is another Ozzie who won Merapoh 70k and also scored third in Ijen Trail 70k over the last few weeks. Jeremy Ritcey is coming back after a break and Scott Pugh is an ultra runner who is likely to appear in the top placings of the leaderboard late in the race.

Also in the women’s 100k, a lot of participants and it is hard to know each one’s background. But those 6 women in the poster below will be close to victory and podium for sure! Asuka Nakajima lost her top spot in the Asia Trail Master Championship to Fredelyn Alberto in Thailand two weeks ago, but the Japanese runner can reclaim it on Saturday. Unless she DNF like in Penang Eco, TMBT will be her 5th result of the season and that means a full whack of points still. Being 317 points behind Alberto in the ranking, a top 9 result will do the trick: definitely within reach! Nakajima already won three ATM races in 2019, there’s a good chance that she will be the target for the other title contenders in the next few months. Adelinah Lintanga, however, is the home runner in Sabah and very keen to win this weekend. Lintanga is racing much less this year, and with great competitive effect: she won Penang Eco 100 miles in style! Adelinah has a weak ankle, which hopefully won’t bother her too much. Hong Kong’s Oxsitis ambassador Jcy Ho is on a roll: she ran the 62K in Chiang Mai two weeks ago and came 4th, now she is on the 100k and next week she is also doing Vietnam Mountain Marathon. Jcy Ho made herself known in the 9 Dragons 50/50 earlier this season by coming second, and backed that up with a solid 5th place on the fast Sungai Menyala Forest Trail. A podium at TMBT is a real possibility. Paulina Svoboda, from Czech Republic but living in Singapore, is always a contender. She won MMTF and Merapoh last year, this year she was 4th in Ultimate Tsaigu 80K. Chong Mei Tze from peninsular Malaysia is a newcomer and as she said herself in Merapoh: a newbie in running even! Her relative inexperience still shows, but the pace is there. If she can get it all together, watch out for an upset victory this weekend! From Philippines comes Melanie Hingpit, another dark horse who on given days rises up to the occasion. Finally, we are also interested to see how Evelyn Lek from Singapore will fare. After winning Merapoh 100 and VMM 100 a year ago she has been struggling a bit competitively, but winning aforementioned races proves the ability is there. Also on the start list, but a DNS is Faherina Mohd Esa, who suffered a badly twisted ankle last week.

As usual we will be reporting live from Sabah starting on Friday afternoon and throughout the race on Saturday, which starts at 6 a.m. local time.

Asuka Nakajima can regain the points lead in the ATM Championship at TMBT 100