Milton Amat continues his reign in his home state of Sabah. On Saturday, the local hero won BUTM 55km in 6:05:06 after catching and overtaking a fading Alessandro Sherpa around km 40. As often, the 2018 ATM Champion had started out fast and put distance between himself and the other competitors. Despite cloudy weather, the temperature and humidity were still very high and plenty of participants suffered from dehydration at some point during the day. Sherpa included. His pace dropped significantly and he even contemplated retiring from the race at aid station 4 while lying on the ground trying to take in sports drink. Both Milton Amat and the once again surprisingly fast Wilsen Singgin had just passed him at that point. After some time, Sherpa got back up and continued for the final 11km to the finish line. He still managed to score third on the podium, staying ahead of Yasbie Ismail by 13 minutes. Milton Amat took the victory, but it is a stretch to say he was just cruising home. It had clearly been a working day for Amat, and he also admitted as much. Wilsen Singgin had also kept the pressure on, actually running faster than Amat in some sections and finishing just ten minutes later. Are we going to see Wilsen Singgin finally exploiting all his talent this season? In the three months since the end of last season, Singgin has looked remarkably fresher and more competitive as already illustrated by his 50k win over Sefli Ahar in Brunei two weeks ago.

The women’s 50km was entirely dominated by the youngster Shamiera Auther. Leading from start to finish, Auther proved her competitive progress and maturity in taking her first ATM race victory ahead of experienced runners such as Kona Laiu , Vicki Zhu and the Lintanga sisters Lolita and Jessica. Auther even had an advantage at the finish of over 50 minutes! Jessica Lintanga, who still had the upper hand over Auther in TMBT half a year ago, ran together with her younger sister. It was the first time Lolita entered the top five of an ATM race.

The 105km ultra looked like a bird in the hand for local hero Daved Simpat. The obvious pre-race favourite also seemed very much at ease on the trails on Saturday morning, leading by quite a long margin over e.g. Oswald Maikol, Sulhan Mohd, Gustin Tiam and Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Chung. But in the afternoon drama unfolded as Simpat retired himself from the race at WS6, citing two spells of ‘fainting’ earlier on. Even Sabah’s own top runners are not immune for the heat and humidity! With Simpat out, suddenly a number of runners were looking at a potential prestigious victory. Another Sabah veteran, Gustin Tiam took control and opened up a gap towards Sulhan Mohd, a relative newcomer in the ultra scene who last year won UTOP 100 in Penang. By the last aid station, Tiam looked like he was safe to grab victory - his first ever in ATM at the age of 48. A fantastic performance, indeed! Sulhan Mohd ran an amazing final sector to reduce the gap to Tiam from nearly 30 minutes to 18 minutes at the finish. Did he leave it just a bit too late? Nevertheless, Sulhan looks like a solid new name in the Malaysian ultra scene. Sabah’s Oswald Maikol dropped back after a fast start and would settle for third place, just like in TMBT 100 last season. Maikol had to dig deep at the end because Wont Kudin ran a fantastic final few hours emerging into the top ten and finishing fourth eventually, ahead of Muhammad Hazim, Nguyen Van Chung, Haziq Asyraf and Atsushi Ito, for example.

The women’s 100km also had a bit of a thrilling conclusion. Pre-race favourite and last year’s winner Rejlen James was in control of the race from the start and built up a nice gap towards the other competitors. However, also she as a local began to suffer from the conditions and found it increasingly difficult to manage her fluid and food intake. James’ advantage was melting away and she had to stop several times feeling sick. A well-trained Adelinah Lintanga, in her best race since winning Penang Eco in 2019, came ever closer , but James held on by 13 minutes at the finish in the middle of the night. The rejuvinated Lintanga was pleased with her own return to form and second place, but also realised she had come close to a big win. Just like with Sulhan in the men’s, did she leave her ‘attack’ too late? This year’s BUTM 100 looks like a nice case study in ‘how to manage your efforts and the time gaps to your competitors’ . In third place, we found the still quite young Lynda Marylyn, who showed her ultra distance talent again. Last year, she already came 2nd in the Borneo Miler - also behind Rejlen James. The very experienced Celeste Teo took fourth, and Penang’s Pei Fen Goh fifth.

BUTM: Milton Amat wins as Sherpa fades towards the end