Resurrection of the 9 Dragons in Langkawi

This weekend we have the next ATM Candidate Race event in Malaysia, and it’s a debut for the popular holiday island Langkawi. The 9 Dragons Malaysia mirrors the event concept introduced by RaceBase in Hong Kong, itself a points race in our Championship series in 2018 and 2019. The main focus is on the two-day competition with runners doing 50 miles on Saturday AND 50 km on Sunday. A tough task, physically and mentally, and arguably even more so in hot & humid Langkawi than in a relatively cool early February weekend in Hong Kong. It is perhaps not a surprise therefore that he start lists for the individual 50 miles and 50k races are longer than for the combo race. However, it is certainly no surprise to see Siokhar Lim on the start list. According to some, Siokhar Lim deserves the title of ‘toughest trail woman in Malaysia’ , by virtue of her impressive record in the most difficult ultra trail events in the region since 2019. As we have seen already this season, Siokhar Lim is also faster than ever and the question is whether she can podium overall this weekend in Langkawi. Puteri Norsharina Abdul Aziz, like Lim an ATM Grandmaster, is the second Malaysian woman on the 50/50 combo, and they are joined by Ireland’s Dawn O’Dowd. In the men’s start list we find a.o. Abdul Rahman and Lem Chee Ng, the Singapore-based Malaysian who finished together with Siokhar Lim at UTOP 105 three weeks ago.

Lots of runners signed up for the 50 miles and 50 km single races, and we will be keeping an eye out for a.o. Sally Yap and Halimatun Sa’adiah.