Thailand’s Jay Jantaraboon was the impressive winner of a very wet and treacherous Korea 50k in Dongducheon, in the northern outskirts of Seoul, last Saturday. In control of his own pacing and navigation from the start, Jantaraboon was briefly challenged by the speed of Japan’s Koken Ogasawara, but when most contenders somehow went off course, Jay kept it all together and completed the course in 5h50. He actually made it look easy to score his 3rd ATM race win after UTKC 100 (2017) and UTCR 125 (2018).

Heavy rain in the middle of the night was a foreboding for a tricky race that started at 6am. Rainfall decreased for the first two hours, but then came back downpour-style. As runners got soaked, many also began to get cold. Due to the extreme conditions, many of the 650 official 50k runners also threw in the towel. However, many also picked up a DQ - mostly to their surprise. Especially faster runners fell victim to ambiguous marking signs, and said they ‘kept seeing and following markers’ even though they were already off course. Hence, they kept going forward without realising they were actually shortcutting. Alessandro Sherpa, not having his best day but still competing for podium, arrived visibly confused at the finish line. The same for Jose Luis Alvelais, Spiros Kechrimparis and Mongolian Amgalanjargal Davaajargal and a list of others. It was a particularly sad tale for Koken Ogasawara, who was leading the race just after CP 2, at km 23. He took a wrong turn and continued to run himself out of the race. Given that many participants ended up on the same “wrong” trails, it is fair to claim there was an issue. And yet, in the flash interview after the finish, race winner Jay Jantaraboon argued that the markings were fine. As the cliche in sports goes: ‘the winner is always right’.

Kim Jisu - not to be confused with Kim Jisub - was a legitimate number 2 in any case, 25 minutes behind winner Jay Jantaraboon. He proved strongest of a Korean trio that put pressure on Alessandro Sherpa early on. In third we find Minchul Ko, who ran a strong final sector to still pass Byeungwon Park and Dongkuk Jang. America’s David Duffy was sixth.

Hisashi Kitamura was never really into contention for the podium. Looking tired after a series of farewell parties and logistical arrangements in the context of his return to Tokyo after ten years in Kuala Lumpur, he started the race slow for his standards and arrived at checkpoint 1 only in 13th place. However, by CP 2, he looked more energetic and had moved up to 7th place. Unfortunately, his race then came to a bitter conclusion as he slipped and fell face first against a rock. Black-eyed and heavily bleeding from a cut, Kitamura was shaken and waited for assistance to bring him to hospital. He required six stitches and it was also discovered he had broken a bone in his wrist.. Kitamura had no race plans until Deep Japan Ultra at the end of June, but will need the recovery time in any case.

The women’s race was convincingly won by Joung Sel A, who led from the start. Kim Jinhee overtook a freezing Japan’s Moeko Yasugahira at CP 2, but then also ran the shortcut to CP 4. Another unfortunate DQ. Gwak Mihee inherited second place and Jang Hee Hoo completed the podium. Notably, both stayed ahead of Yasugahira and Boyoung Lee.

ATM Live Video Update CP2

ATM Live Video Update CP1

Jay Jantaraboon excels in very wet Korea 50k