The 5th edition of The 9 Dragons event in Hong Kong’s New Territories saw 2023 ATM Champion John Ray Onifa and Japan’s Kanako Edamoto emerge victorious after winning both stages on Saturday and Sunday. Both runners proved superior to their competitors, but nevertheless had to work as Oleksii Melnyk and Man Yee Cheung kept them honest all weekend. The 50km single day race saw fantastic runs by Hong Kong’s ever-improving Wai Hei Ng and France’s Aurore Dacier.

It was a warm edition of the 9 Dragons, which caused many participants to cramp up with dehydration at some stage during the two days. During the 50 Miles (or 82km) on Saturday, John Ray Onifa appeared to be using cruise control rather than going flat out from the start, as he usually tends to do. He nevertheless opened up a gap to HK-based Ukranian Oleksii Melnyk, second in the 50/50 category already last year behind Kristian Joergensen and determined to try and win this time around. Initally, also the young Japanese runner Shoma Maruyama accompanied the duo during the first six hours at nighttime. Maruyama would blow up later, while Melnyk managed to bridge the gap towards Onifa with some 22km left to run. It was arguably a wake-up moment for Onifa, who was - tellingly - wearing earpods. The Filipino shifted to a higher gear on the next hilly section and again took the advantage by a few minutes. However, while Onifa ran home comfortably to grab the stage win, his interview could not be completed because the resilient Melnyk finished just a single minute later. Just one minute difference between the two protagonists, there was no better way to raise excitement for Day 2 on Sunday. Hong Kong duo Tsang Kit Chuan and KC Chan still managed to get ahead of Murayma for third and fourth on the day.

In the women’s 50/50 group, Japan’s Kanako Edamoto was in command from the beginning. Hong Kong’s Man Yee Cheung and Austria’s Cornelia Oswald were keeping up, although the gap would increase ever more. Edamoto took 26 minutes on Cheung to go into day 2’s 50km. It was also her first ever ATM race victory.

There was also a 50 Miles single day race category, only valid for the ATM Grandmaster Quest and not the ATM Championship ranking, which saw former 50/50 winner Kazufumi Ose and Hong Kong’s Lai Shan Pak take the win in the male and female category, respectively.

Onto day 2 with a 7:30 am race start. Tradition says making it to the start line is the hardest part of the day for the 50/50 runners. Oleksii Melnyk had clearly recovered well as he started quick and even put some minutes on John Ray Onifa by CP 1 after 10 kilometres. Was an upset in the making? That thought did not last long, however, as Onifa was again clearly pacing himself. Flying up the subway stairs and the concrete uphill path aroundd CP1 (at Fan Ling), Onifa was saving his ammunition for later on in the day. He knew what was coming as he won the 50km single day race last year. The 50km course at the 9 Dragons is one of the toughest around. Meanwhile, the battle for the 3rd podium spot on the 50/50 was decisively going into Tsang Kit Chuan’s favour. Murayama was holding his own, but KC Chan seemed least recovered of the trio and would never look in contention on Sunday. Between CP 3 and C4 at Shing Mun, Onifa caught Melnyk and immediately pressed ahead as temperatures kept rising, which was an addtional difficulty for the Ukranian. It was the moment the race was won for John Ray Onifa. He would even still finish second overall on the 50km, behind one surprisingly quick local newcomer on the ATM scene. Melnyk did great in finishing just eight minutes later, showing again his mental strength as well. Tsang Kit Chuan impressed with third place, just 20 minutes behind Onifa. Murayama salvaged fourth place, ahead of Fo Lok Liu, who still managed to overtake KC Chan for fifth. Overall, this was one of Onifa’s most mature race weekends and hopefully illustrative of many more beautiful performances to come!

The one runner who managed to win the 50km outright was Hong Kong’s Wai Hei Ng. Part of T8’s Hong Kong team, Wai Hei Ng is not exactly a newbie, but someone who was out of the racing scene for two years before coming back and is seemingly faster than ever. The 9 Dragons was his first appearance on the ATM scene. He took control of his 50k race halfway when Filipino Randolf Gonzales disintegrated entirely, apparently the result of back pain. Gonzales was also new on the ATM scene, coming from obstacle racing. He set a blistering pace initially that nobody could follow. Besides back pain, also lack of experience may have done him in to ultimately finish down in 12th. Gonzales vowed afterwards to come back stronger next time. Kose Rodarte also was among the fast starters who suffered later on, but he still managed to get a third place on the podium of the 50k single race category. Even Wai Hei Ng appeared to be slowing down in the last section, but he nevertheless took a convincing victory in 6h20. That’s 14 minutes slower than Onifa did a year ago. A name to remember, Wai Hei Ng is also scheduled to run Lantau 70 next month. Behind him, Matthew Gay came second on the podium. Gay ran an excellent race, moving up the leaderboard in the second part, showing that his strategy worked. He even still overtook the first female runner, highly touted Aurore Dacier, winner in ATM already three times at MMTF 50, Lantau 70 and Bali Ultra 50. Dacier was unchallenged in the women’s 50km, but arguably gave herself a hard time by trying to follow the leading men. At checkpoints, Dacier would repeatedly say she is not feeling well , but she was also sixteen minutes ahead of the time schedule her coach had laid out before the race. Finishing in just under 6h59, Dacier gave evidence of the progress she has made as a competitive trail runners since last year. Unfortunately, the announced ‘dual’ with Eszter Csillag did not materialise as the latter was a DNS on Sunday. Quite a long way behind Dacier, there was nevertheless a nice battle for the remaining podium spots of the women’s 50km. Eventually, Nicole Lau had the upper hand, ahead of Philippines’ Trisha Reyes and Kimmy Leung.

The next ATM points race event in Hong Kong is Lantau 70 at the end of March.

9 Dragons 50/50: Victories for John Ray Onifa and Kanako Edamoto