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.

The early part of Season 10 in our Asia Trail Master Championship series continues in East Java, Indonesia, this weekend with a new entry on our calendar. The second edition of Broder 50 is the latest event produced and directed by the well-established Mantra 116 team and takes place in the legendary Bromo desert. As the event title suggests, Broder 50 has a 50km main race category - the one that matters for runners who wish to score points for the ATM Championship ranking, which leads to potential qualification for the Championship Final in September 2025. The race starts at 3am on Saturday morning.

The early part of Season 10 in our Asia Trail Master Championship series continues in East Java, Indonesia, this weekend with a new entry on our calendar. The second edition of Broder 50 is the latest event produced and directed by the well-established Mantra 116 team and takes place in the legendary Bromo desert. As the event title suggests, Broder 50 has a 50km main race category - the one that matters for runners who wish to score points for the ATM Championship ranking, which leads to potential qualification for the Championship Final in September 2025. The race starts at 3am on Saturday morning.

A few of Indonesia’s usual top performers feature on the start list. First and foremost Risqi Kurniawan, who has been basically undefeated on the medium trail distance in his home country for quite a while now. Injury plagued him a few months ago, but in July the T8 runner still managed to take another victory at Mantra 65k. Broder 50 is normally a runable trail and this could place a few other competitors within striking distance. Akhmad Nizar is never that far behind Risqi and maybe on a good day he can put up a challenge in Bromo. In Indonesia there’s always runners who appear from nowhere on the top of the race leaderboard, so maybe we get to know some new faces as well. Bali-based Thimo Kilberth is in any case also a lover of runable trails where he can use his inherent running speed to get close to the podium. Malaysia’s Ole Athletic runner Muhammad Faris Azhari will also be a contender for the top 3 in the men’s race.

From the same team but coming from Sabah is Lynda Marylyn, Championship Finalist at Borneo TMBT last month. On paper, she has a great opportunity to score her first ATM race victory at Broder 50. Lynda, nicknamed ‘Butet’, is an upcoming young talent in Malaysia who has become increasingly competitive in the course of the past year. Other contenders are expected to be local Indonesian runners and Canada’s Isabelle Bedard.

ATM will be reporting live from Broder 50 on our usual channels.

The 50km course

The famous Bromo desert

Risqi Kurniawan

Lynda 'Butet' Marylyn

We are happy to announce that the 2nd edition of Broder 50 in the Bromo desert of East Java in Indonesia is a new entry on our race calendar of Season 10! The event is organised by the established team of Mantra 116 and takes place on 12 October 2024. The key points race is the 50km.

It has been a few years since ATM has had a race in Bromo on the schedule. Running in the high-altitude desert with its magical volcanic scenery. This race will be catering for trail runners with a good pace in the legs. The loop around the crater will be done twice, and refrains from including sections deemed too technical for the average runner. It is not flat-flat, with 1200m of elevation gain to be overcome. The cut-off time is set at 10 hours, so you need a minimum pace of 5km per hour.

Registration for the event is already open. Just go to the official website below. To get to Bromo, international participants best fly to Surabaya, main city in East Java. From there you can take ground transport to Probolingo and Lautan Pasir Bromo. The 50km race starts at 4am on Saturday morning.

Season 10 of the Asia Trail Master Championship series will thus initiate with two events in Indonesia. On 21/22 September, the season begins with Dieng Trail Run in Central Java.