A year ago the Mount Apo Sky Race was the ATM Championship decider seeing Vietnamese sensation Hau Ha and Davao local Arnie Macaneras winning the titles in the female and male categories respectively. This weekend the event and its 100km race is one of two season openers for Season IX of our series. The other one is Izu Trail Journey in Japan on Sunday.

Mount Apo and its boulderface remain a popular challenge for plenty a trail runner. It’s the highest mountain of the Philippines, after all, and the race goes from the beach in Santa Cruz to the peak and back. On the start list we find last year’s 100k winner Yoyong Sacayle, who just a week ago ran arguably the best competitive race of his running journey at Siksorogo Lawu Ultra. As part of the winning Team Pilipinas, Sacayle kept up with none other than Hisashi Kitamura for the big majority of the race. Only a small dip towards the end still saw Wilsen Singgin overtake him, but his seventh place and the manner it came about was a positive surprise for all observers. Has Sacayle recovered enough this week to take a repeat victory on Apo this weekend? His main competitors are likely to be another former Apo winner - Ronnie Torlao - and Rexell Aguirre, who was outstanding in the 100 miles race at UT Chiang Rai in October. What can Sean Aying do? Part of Team Pilipinas alongside Sacayle last week, Aying did not have the best of race days in Indonesia and contented himself with ‘just’ finishing. His racing season has been very long and his greatest form that saw him, a.o. score third place in Mantra 116 in July, may be over by now. Or can he find a final burst of energy on Apo to challenge for the win? Let’s also keep an eye on Bernie Bauyot and Jomarc Ferrer.

In the women’s race, we are looking forward to what can be a close competition between Julie Ann Morales, Manilyn Mamugay and relative newcomer Shally Yuson. Only a few weeks ago, Yuson outpaced Mamugay in the Santa Cruz 70 Candidate Race and Matanao in October, but now we are going up Apo. Mamugay has won this race already. Yuson also finished ahead of Morales in Matanao 70 last October. But Morales was the best Filipino female in the ATM Final last year with a great fifth place.

Back to Apo: experience vs fresh blood