In a highly competitive edition of Lantau 70 in Hong Kong, reigning ATM Champion John Ray Onifa showed once more he is in a league on his own with a dominant win in 6h53’11” - an astonishing forty minutes ahead of Malaysia’s Milton Amat! The women’s ATM Champion Rashila Tamang on the other hand found Hong Kong’s humid conditions in combination with the famous stairs still a difficult challenge. It was Singapore-based French woman Aurore Dacier who caught the limelight with a very composed and impressive run to win the female race in 8h13’12”. The 2024 edition was 6km shorter due to a landslide so times can hardly be compared, but the original Lantau 70 course record is 8h48’45” set in 2018 by Lucinda Bartholomew. In any case, Dacier’s finish time proves we have a new racing protagonist in town!

Cloudy and temperatures hovering around 22 degrees: it looked wonderful for the 300 solo runners at the start line in Mui Wo at 8:30 am in the morning. However, humidity was high and many would pay a price for an over-ambitious early running pace. Rashila Tamang had arrived from Kathmandu with determination to win for the first time as reigning ATM Champion and put a strong women’s field under pressure immediately on Lantau Peak. She arrived first at the km 13 checkpoint and looked solid running up the stairs, and especially going down. But Aurore Dacier was not far behind. Dacier won MMTF 50 last year and also the 30km V Trail in Laos last month, so we knew she had experience in racing in South East Asia’s conditions. Angie Yan, the exciting winner of the 9 Dragons last month, and last year’s Lantau 70 winner Katrina Hamlin took a more conservative approach but kept the two leaders still within reach. In this race the aid stations are a bit further apart than in most races, so AS 2 only came at km 28 and it was Dacier who arrived first. Tamang had lost of a few minutes, and the others even more. Can the Nepalese runner return in the technical descent towards the water reservoir at AS3 (km 38)? The answer was negative but she did still keep the gap manageable at around 12 minutes. Aurore Dacier looked ever more in control, though, and did not seem to suffer at all from either her own running pace or the conditions. She cruised to victory in the slightly easier final 25km and picked up quite a few male runners on the way. Quite a statement from this sympathetic newcomer in Asia’s trail scene, of whom we are likely to see much more of.

There is another relative newbie of whom we have not yet seen the last of. Hong Kong’s Angie Yan had already shown her incredible grit in the 9 Dragons, turning defeat into victory over none other than Xie Wenfei, and she did the same in Lantau 70. Not Rashila Tamang, but Angie Yan stormed to second place and - what’s more - just 11 minutes behind Dacier! That could only have meant she ran faster than anyone else in the final sections and Strava proved that: she broke the local KOM of Veronika Vadovicova no less! Angie Yan seemed surprised at her own performance afterwards, she clearly has not yet discovered her own limits. With Dacier and Yan, the ATM womens’ championship definitely has two new contenders. And we can add local Lantau runner Katrina Hamlin in the mix, too. Hamlin outsprinted the cramping Rashila Tamang for third place. Tsz Kwan Lee finished in fifth.

As mentioned above, the men’s race developed into another one-man-show of John Ray Onifa. After a relaxed start, Onifa led the pack at the first checkpoint, but Milton Amat - running in HK for the first time since 9 Dragons in 2019 - and Alessandro Sherpa, second last year, followed him within three minutes. Then it was the surprising Matthew Gay, Richard Kimber, Wilsen Singgin, Marc Decamps and many others. The returning John Ellis was just inside the top 20 - making his characteristic slower start. Onifa then switched on his engine for real and quickly increased the gap towards his two main rivals for the victory. Sherpa saw Milton Amat catching him by CP2, and then dropped back - suffering from gastritis and severe dehydration - just like a fortnight ago at BUTM 50. This time, Sherpa could not salvage a podium finish, but he did walk the race out to finish in 33rd place and secure his wild card for the ATM Finals as a former - 2018 - ATM champion. Milton Amat also saw the writing on the wall and focused on keeping second place. Onifa was just out of reach. The other Sabahan ace, the in-form Wilsen Singgin, was looking good to score third place, but the more runable last sections suited Hong Kong-based Richard Kimber better. He overtook Singgin in the last kilometre. Hong Kong-based Belgium’s Marc Decamps once more ended up in the top five of Lantau 70 with a spirited and well-balanced effort. He passed David Longo in the final sector. Australians Michael Ormiston and John Ellis ran themselves into the top 8, for both a great result after all the troubles they have gone through in the last few years.

Lantau 70: Onifa unbeatable while Dacier catches the limelight