There were quite a few Asian star runners at MMTF, but arguably John Ray Onifa was the one who stood out and impressed the most with his dominating performance in the 50k race. He was of course the top favourite, but to beat Daved Simpat by over 32 minutes, Arnie Macaneras by 1 hour and 10 minutes (!), Koi Grey by 1h 23 and Muhamad Affindi by 1h40 on essentially a 47 km course, was a true masterclass. It’s Onifa’s 4th career ATM race victory, scoring one every year since 2017. The Filipino runs mainly on the global stage, otherwise he would still be a serious contender for the Asia Trail Master Championship title.

Behind him, Simpat showed once more that 2022 has been a good year for him. The ‘original’ Sabahan trail star, now well in his forties, even earned his spot in Team Malaysia for the ATM Finals (to be confirmed once the MMTF 100k results are official). For Davao’s Macaneras, qualification for his country’s team is not yet guaranteed but 3rd was a great step in that direction. He is running this coming weekend’s Cordillera Mountain Ultra next to ensure his spot for the Finals in his home area. It was very nice to see Koi Grey back in action last weekend, and he did not miss his comeback. Fourth place and 12 minutes behind Macaneras is truly solid. Alessandro Sherpa also made his comeback in Asia, but reportedly just followed his training and preparation plan for the ATM Finals. Sherpa ran with fellow-T8 ambassador Ezster Csillag as they crossed the finish line behind Koi Grey. That shows you how fast Csillag is, of course. She is one of the three top favourites for the women’s ATM Championship title alongside Vanja Cnops and Hau Ha.

Kristian Joergensen and Milton Amat ruled on the 100km race category, which turned out to be ‘just’ 90 km in fact. While many were hoping to see a great battle between them for the prestigious race victory, they decided to cross the line together. The same happened almost two hours later with the very strong Aqmal Adzmi, who always does well at MMTF, and last year’s winner Wilsen Singgin. Singapore-based Chris Timms was next, just 12 minutes behind them. Remarkable performance by Timms. Milton Amat secured his spot on Team Malaysia, where he will be joined by Wilsen Singgin - who was already qualified before MMTF, just like Muhamad Affindi. For Adzmi, he will just come short on points as Daved Simpat, Amir Zaki and Beng Siong Lee also collected again in their fourth race of the season. Adzmi will be one of the reserves, however, in case one of the qualifiers cannot make it.

It has no major impact on the ATM rankings this time, but our regulations state that joint finishes will not be considered and a distinction must be made when awarding points. Because no clear distinction could be made at the last checkpoint of the race neither, Joergensen and Amat’s points will be rounded down to 450 (=2nd place) instead of 500 (winners), and the same applies for Adzmi and Singgin (400 points = 4th place, instead of 425 = 3rd place). The ATM Championship has had this rule for ‘joint finishes’ since the beginning (see ‘general notes’ on our ATM points system page).

The women’s 100k saw a surprising winner in Angelie Cabalo from the Philippines. Her country delivered a great string of results all weekend and it was obvious also in this race category with 4 Filipinos in the top 6, 3 in the top 4. Majo Liao returned to the ATM scene for the first time since many years and managed to stay just ahead of Malaysia’s Sally Yap for second place. The gap to Cabalo was 25 minutes. Cecille Wael was fourth, well ahead of last year’s winner Izzah Hazirah.

The MMTF races were stopped for safety reasons on late Saturday afternoon following a very heavy downpour. The big majority of 100k runners were still out on the course, and therefore only 7 women reached the finish line. Irish Glorioso and Thailand’s Siriporn Leumathong were the last ones. The MMTF race director decided the others will be marked as finishers. Official results are pending.

MMTF: Onifa's star shines brightest