You can now watch our race recap of last weekend’s Cameron Ultra 100 in Malaysia, the eight points race in Season VII of the 2022 Asia Trail Master Championship series. The video is available below and also on our ATM YouTube channel and ATM Facebook Page. The 100k race was won by Hisashi Kitamura, who ran away from the opposition just over halfway on the out-and-back route. The women’s race was a lot tighter with an ever-changing leaderboard and, eventually, a Singaporean across the finish line first in what was her debut on the ATM circuit: Zeng Xiaoyun, also known as Vincere Zeng. ‘Vincere’ means ‘winning’ in Italian, by the way…

Special thanks to Mark Jinmin and Amy Khor for their great contributions, and to the event organising team at BOLT for their assistance.

Hisashi Kitamura has won Cameron Ultra 2022 and is now the first ever four-star ATM Grandmaster. Crossing the finish line with his trademark 'karate kick' jump, Kitamura also scored his 5th career ATM race victory, and his second of this season. He ran away from his main rival today, Daved Simpat, just over halfway and extended his advantage progressively. His race time was 12h01 minute.

54 minutes later, Sabah's Daved Simpat entered the event arena in second place and scored another important 450 ATM Championship points after those at BUTM 100 in March. Important, because Team Malaysia is not the easiest team to qualify for with a view to the ATM Final in December at the Mount Apo Sky Race in Sta Cruz, Davao, Philippines. Simpat certainly still has what it takes on the other side of age 40. In third and completing the podium was France's Herve Huguenot. His first ever podium result in an ATM race. Wilsen Singgin again suffered from cramps and had to settle for fourth, just like in BUTM and seems still a bit away from his top form that brought him the Malaysia Trail Master title in MMTF at the end of last year. The men's top 5 was rounded up by Singaporean Deric Lau, who made his debut in an ATM race.

Singapore's Vincere Zeng was the best woman on the day, after a very exciting race with constantly changing positions at the front. Sally Yap got overtaken by Zeng in only the final 10k of the race. Halimatun Saadiah scored 3rd place in basically a spint in the final kilometers against Vietnam-based Japanese runner Tamae Harada. Izzah Hazirah was leading early on, but dropped down the leaderboard.

You can relive the action of the front runners via the replay function on our ATM/DTA interface

2019 vice ATM Champion Hisashi Kitamura starts the 5th edition of Cameron Ultra as the top favourite on the 100 km points race this coming Saturday at 3:45 am. The KL-based Japanese UGLOW Asia ace is in excellent form during the first months of Season VII and underlined that with a strong victory in Japan at Echigo Country Trail just a month ago. Confidence runs high also because the Karate Kit was already 2nd in Cultra in 2019, the last time the event was organised, albeit not part of the ATM series back then.

Cameron Ultra is one the most popular trail events in Malaysia alongside Borneo TMBT Ultra and MMTF. The route is essentially an out-and-back through pristine scenery and various types of terrain. Elevation gain is not to be underestimated for the 100k: over 3900 hm. The route includes Mount Berembun and Mount Perdah. Given the Cameron Highlands are generally located between 800m and 1600m above sea level, the climate is not all that bad for trail runners with cooler temperatures than in other Malaysian races. The Cameron Highlands are of course also famous for the tea plantations.

The main challengers for Kitamura are expected to come from Sabah in East Malaysia. Wilsen Singgin was not happy with his performance at BUTM earlier this year in March and is hoping to reconnect with the kind of running form that brought him victory at last year’s MMTF in December, ahead of Kitamura and Daved Simpat, his fellow Sabahan who also features on the start list this weekend. Other podium contenders are likely to be Jeffery Budin, Bernardo Linus Sanchez, Seiji Morofuji and Derrick Lau. Of course, there’s always a possibility for unknown runners to come to the foreground. Noteworthy is also that the Indonesian and Singaporean leaders in the country rankings are also on the start list: Abdul Rahman Muhammad Ishak (Indonesia) and Cao Wei (Singapore). The country rankings are important to determine who will qualify for their national country team at the ATM Championship Final on 17 December.

The women’s 100k race is expected to turn into a dual between 2021 Malaysia Trail Master Champion Izzah Hazirah and BUTM 100 winner Sally Yap. Izzah will launch her 2022 campaign in our series at Cameron Ultra. Highly experienced, also on technical trails, Izzah will be keen to add this race to her collection of victories. For newbie Sally Yap, from Sarawak, this weekend could be the definite breakthrough of a new trail talent.

Asia Trail Master will be reporting live from the 100k race throughout the weekend, via our usual channels on facebook and instagram, as well as on our new DTA-based interface.

Hisashi Kitamura: top favourite to score another race victory this weekend

Wilsen Singgin could be the biggest challenger for Kitamura together with fellow Sabahan Daved Simpat

Izzah Hazirah: the Malaysia Trail Master Champion 2021 will have her first ATM race of the season

Sally Yap from Sarawak was the impressive winner of BUTM 100. Can she repeat this weekend?

We know him as one of the top contenders in the Asia Trail Master Championship, but this weekend Hisashi Kitamura can also enter the record books as the first trail runner to obtain the Grandmaster **** four stars label. The Malaysia-based Japanese runner from Team UGLOW Asia will be competing at Cameron Ultra 100 this weekend.

Kitamura began his Grandmaster Quest in early 2018 with the 9 Dragons in Hong Kong and already completed the first level in the same year in Bali at the Plataran X Trail. He continued piling up the results and race finishes of over 70km in the following year - when he stubbornly challenged John Ellis for the ATM Championship title - even to the extent many felt he was outrunning himself. The covid crisis of course also stopped him in his tracks, which in that sense might have been not the worst thing. In this current season VII, Kitamura is in any case very much back in action and he is probably at his highest competitive level yet. Cameron Ultra 100 this coming Saturday will be his 20th Grandmaster distance in the ATM series, and many will bet on him to win the race. But even if he does not, finishing Cultra will earn him the top Grandmaster recognition.

Another three-star Grandmaster***, Masafumi Yamamoto will be aiming for his 19th race finish at Cameron Ultra as well. It is interesting that the first two runners about to score four stars are both from the same country, Japan. A country, of course, that loves distance running.