UTKC: Dunn spoils Macaneras' Party as Alberto dominates women's

UTKC in Thailand is back on the programme and participants have felt it: this is one very technical jungle race! It is one of those that is never over until it is over, and last weekend drama struck for Arnie Macaneras. After taken an amazingly big lead over the likes of Paul Dunn and Hisashi Kitamura, blisters forced the Filipino to hike most of the last 35 km. Paul Dunn - second on the 70km of UTKC two years ago - smelled blood and caught Macaneras in the final 10 km of the race and took away the victory. Dunn’s finishing time was 18:21:07. Macaneras, who is only 28 and running trail abroad for the first time, still had to conceded 40 minutes in those final kilometres and fend off a late-attack by Kitamura but managed second by nine minutes over the Japanese Uglow ace. Kitamura was the birthday boy last Saturday, but the greatest gift was never really within reach. Belly flu had seriously affected his preparation for UTKC and also on race day he had to make several unforeseen pit stops. Nevertheless, Karate Kit is the first of the big names who has done his second ATM points race of the 2020 season already and two third places are enough to put him in the lead of the ATM Championship after three races.

Sanya Khancai was on the start list, but the Thai favourite did not start. The first Thai male runner was Narongwit Piroonpaisarn in fourth place. Another contender from Japan, Tomohiro Mizukoshi, was totally uncomfortable on the jungle trails of Koh Chang island and finished well down in 34th place after he had decided it was not going to be his day. Also Nikom Tongjai was not in his element and arrived just before Tomohiro in 29th place.

A runner who was certainly very much in her element on the raw trails of UTKC was Fredelyn Alberto. The Hong Kong-based Filipino runner of Team T8 led the women’s race from almost start to finish and was even unthreatened all day. Alberto finished fourth overall (!) in a time of 20:03:01 - that’s 55 minutes behind one Hisashi KItamura. She certainly has not missed the start of her 2020 ATM campaign! It was to be expected that Fredelyn Alberto would do well in Koh Chang, as last year she also conquered Moon 100 on Koh Phangan island - another brutal hilly jungle race in Thailand taking place in June. Still, prior to the start she was not the top favourite. Australia’s Joanna Kruk was there, the second-placed woman of UTKC in 2017 and unbeaten on the ATM tour after that. But it had been a year-and-a-half since we last saw Kruk, and it turned out she has been suffering from tendinitis. When she arrived at CP1 after around 10 km, Kruk had too much pain and - wisely - decided to pull out not to wreck her knee entirely.

Montha Suntornwit had a good run to come in as second woman behind Alberto, as she managed to stay ahead of Loretta Henderson. Montha is very skilled on technical ultra trails as well and not for nothing 6th in last year’s ATM Championship. But last weekend, the gap with Fredelyn Alberto was huge: more than three hours. It illustrates just how strong the Filipino was, and yet she explained in the post-race interview (on our facebook page) that she sprained her ankle very early in the race and felt it all day..

UTKC traditionally also has a 70K race category, which also offered ATM Championship points as well as the Grandmaster point. In the men’s we had a surprisingly exciting race between Hong Kong’s Ryan Whelan and Thailand’s trail star Pharait Varesin. The top duo was a league on their own and they really set those trails on fire. Whelan had come to Thailand following the cancellation of most races in Hong Kong in recent weeks, and because the runner from Team Gone Running-Joint Dynamics has the ATM Championship on his mind. Whelan will certainly have gotten a confidence boost when he managed to drop Varesin just before halfway the race and managed to retain a gap of five-six minutes all the way to the line. A great cat-and-mouse race that resulted in a finish time of 9:23 against 9:29. No need to say more. Ryan Bonfield completed the podium but found himself over three hours behind.

In the women’s 70km, it was Philippines again to celebrate victory. Elviemma Catabay scored her first ATM race victory in a tight competition against Thailand’s Laksamee Duangjai. Supaporn Nakkawat was third.

A fantastic performance by Fredelyn Alberto on the technical trails of Koh Chang island

The two big winners: Paul Dunn and Fredelyn Alberto

The podium in the men’s: Paul Dunn, Arnie Macaneras and Hisashi Kitamura

Ryan Whelan took a fantastic victory over Pharait Varesin on the 70km race.

Elviemma Catabay made the Filipino success even bigger by winning the women’s 70km.