Broder 50: Risqi and Shindy both collect another ATM race win

Indonesia’s top trail runners Risqi Kurniawan and Shindy Patricia collected their fifth and seventh ATM race victories, respectively, at the great Broder 50 event in East Java’s Bromo desert. Both elites finished clearly ahead of a solid field and underlined their ambitions for this season’s ATM Championship. Broder 50 consisted of two loops of 25km in the famous ‘desert’ around the Bromo volcano. A runable race that nevertheless got tough due the gale winds that struck runners in the second loop.

Risqi Kurniawan had an up-and-down year so far, plagued by injury, but very much looked in control again last Saturday. Competitors such as Akhmad Nizar, Muhammad Faris, Ma’Mun Khariri, Thimo Kilberth and Yuki Naotori all ran great races, but had to tolerate Kurniawan running away in the distance from early on. The battle for second place was exciting. Malaysia’s Faris was arguable most impressive in showing a fast running pace and keeping up with Khariri - winner of Mantra 116 and second in Bali 80 this year - and Nizar (ATM Finalist 2023 , finishing 8th at Siksorogo, and ‘eternal second’ behind Kurniawan. Towards the end, an injury-hampered Nizar still managed to score another second place, but Faris did complete the podium ahead of Khariri. Sponsored and coached by Team Ole Athletic, this was a great step-up in performance level for the Malaysian. Bali-based German Thimo Kilberth started his Season 10 campaign in style with fifth overall and first in the ‘veteran’ category. He stayed ahead of Japan’s Naotori.

Shindy Patricia was a late addition to the start list, showing up just one week after an unfortunate DNF in a mountain race in Sabah. Seemingly out for revenge on herself, she left the other women no chance. The East Javanese trail star took her seventh career win in ATM, after sitting out Season 9 to focus on road and marathon runs. Shindy is back with a bang! As with the men, the women’s race for second was interesting to follow. Malaysia-based Filipino Ritzy Amor , who joined the aforementioned Team Ole Athletic , looked set to grab the first runner-up spot, but was overtaken towards the end by the surprisingly quick Azarine Putri , also from East Java. In fourth, we had Indonesia’s Masrifah and Canada’s Isabelle Bedard. Pre-race favourite Lynda Marylyn DNFd after the first loop, running in fourth place, citing difficulties breathing after inhaling a lot of dust after the wind picked up strongly.

Broder 50 is a typically scenic Indonesian trail race organised by the Mantra team from Malang. However, as most other trail races in the country tend to be tough, technical to very technical, this one is runable, making for an interesting change.