This Saturday, for the first time in its 6-year history, the Vietnam Trail Marathon in Moc Chau is a points race for the Asia Trail Master Championship series and Grandmaster Quest. ‘VTM’ has been the traditional series opener of the Vietnam Trail Series, which also includes September’s classic Vietnam Mountain Marathon, and offers a majestic course across Moc Chau’s tea plantations and peach blossoms. The 70km race is the one for points and starts on Saturday morning at 5 am.

While technically our 9th ATM Championship season already started with Izu Trail and Mt Apo Sky Race last month, VTM is the first points race event in 2024. With also V Trail in Laos, Bagtit Ultra in Philippines and The 9 Dragons in Hong Kong coming up in the next few weeks it will indeed be a busy start. The set-up and regulations for the new Season IX mirror those of the past two years. In each race, the fastest 25 runners (male and female) score points for the ATM Championship ranking and at the end of the season the best five male and female points scorers get an invitation to join the ATM Final race to decide the new ATM champions. This year’s final event is projected to take place at the end of Q3 in September, as we are moving gradually away from the usual end-of-year date in December.

Vietnam Trail Marathon is known to have a runable course that nevertheless has about 3000 metres of elevation gain. Looking at the below course profile, competitors for the win and podium do need to keep something in reserve for the final 20km and all participants better measure their efforts early on as the trails go up almost immediately after the start.

Vanja Cnops has been coming to VTM already quite a few times and the 2023 vice-ATM champion will be back again this weekend to open her new ATM season’s account. The more runable trails suit Vanja a lot , even when the race lasts for 70 km. She is clearly the top favourite in the women’s race this Saturday, but behind her the battle for podium seems quite open. Le Thi Hang, who just completed her Project 365 to run a marathon each day in 2023, will be there, but also Japan’s Akane Nemoto. A 2023 ATM Finalist, Nemoto is now part of Team Mude Sports and after being outstanding in Vietnam’s shorter race distances for years is looking to reach the same level of performance consistency on the 70km. Last September, she won the 70km at VMM but then had a tough day at Lam Dong Trail 75 (5th) before claiming 6th in the ATM Final at Siksorogo Lawu 77km. Thailand’s Sutinee Rasp was 3rd in VMM 70k last season, and Tara Savage - winner of UT Chiang Rai and 13th in the ATM Final last year, are other podium candidates.

The men’s 70km is likely to see a battle between Hung Hai and Valentin Orange, with Nguyen Si Hieu, Tomohiro Mizukoshi, Luis Alvelais, Nguyen TienVo and Nguyen Duc Tuan Anh and Ivan Grigorev heading a larger field of podium contenders. At VMM last September, Hung Hai was back in top form, winning the 100km in a very fast time ahead of Sange Sherpa. Definitely the more experienced runner on an ultra distance, Hung Hai has an advantage over Valentin Orange, who has only really moved up from the shorter distance categories in the last year. Orange does carry a lot of speed with him, and as a member of the Mude Sports Team it will be fascinating to see how he fares against Hung Hai this Saturday. And what to expect of Nguyen Si Hieu? His record lists 9 ATM podiums with 2 race wins. Nguyen Si Hieu is always there and can never be ignored for the prizes at the finish.

ATM will be reporting live from VTM from start to finish, starting at 5am local time.

VTM with Hung Hai, Vanja Cnops and Valentin Orange