We are happy to announce that the 50km of the Great Malaya Trail on 26/27 September will be a points race for the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship. The longest distance on the programme - 100km - will also be valid for a Grandmaster Quest point, but not for Championship points. The inaugural edition of The Great Malaya Trail in Malaysia last October suffered from horrendous weather conditions that forced the organisers of Team Pacat to cancel the two shortest race distance categories and change the event date for 2020. An act of bravery that received widespread acclaim by the Malaysian running community. The two longest categories went ahead as planned, but the foul weather made the 100K sheer hardcore and quite extreme resulting in a high DNF rate. However, the 50K race was in fine balance and enjoyed a high finisher rate. With the ‘trail speedway’ Sungai Menyala Forest Trail in Malaysia disappearing from the race calendar in 2020, fast medium distance specialists can now look forward to the Great Malaya Trail 50 to score their ATM Championship points in a period of the season overwhelmed by tough 100K races. Mind you, it is not an easy race. 2600 metres of elevation gains means plenty of climbing for a 50k.

The event is set around three states in Malaysia: Pahang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan and the race in 2020 will be set around Kem Ghafar Baba, Kemensah. The 50K will skip Negeri Sembilan, but the 100K runners will thus cross three state borders. The trails are for more than 90% pure natural and participants will cross several water streams and rivers. Here and there are also waterfalls to be enjoyed.

Registration for the event is opening soon.

While all the Championship and Grandmaster Quest runners were focused on Ultra Trail Chiang Rai in Thailand last weekend, a 2020 Asia Trail Master Candidate Race unfolded in Malaysia at the same time. The Great Malaya Trail lived up on its pre-race promise of being ‘probably the toughest’ ultra in the country, and the very wet weather early on was not even needed for that. The 100 km had 6600m of elevation gain and went through three states: Selangor - Pahang - Negeri Sembilan. The eventual race winner - former Asia Trail Master Champion Arief Wismoyono from Bandung, Indonesia - needed 22 hours and 20 minutes to complete the course. As Arief said himself afterwards, ‘harder than anything he has done before in Malaysia’ , and he even compares it with some of the renowned extreme trail running events in his own country. Fandhi Achmad, also a known mountaineer and technical trail runner from Indonesia, came in second twenty minutes later.

It is clear that the Great Malaya Trail appeals to the hardcore trail runner. Only 19 finishers on the 100 km of roughly 100 starters, and only two women. However, the finishing rate on the 50 km was much higher at even 80%. The extra bits on the double distance therefore clearly seem to make the difference. Participants were also happy with the event organisation and services. The experienced event organisers from Team Pacat did have a hard time as well as heavy rainfall forced them to cancel the short distance categories of 30 km and 16 km - usually the categories with most paying registrants. It is very brave of a trail organiser to make that decision and Team Pacat deserves a lot of credit for that.

Ahmad Aqua Bin Othman completed the men’s podium of the 100k in 24h50. The two women into the finish were Sammy Yiaw in 30h49 and Izzah Hazirah in 33h26.

Despite all the challenges faced by the organisation, the Great Malaya Trail made a solid debut and those who like the rough’n tough will look forward to the next edition, now scheduled for end of September 2020. It is not yet decided whether or not the event becomes a points race in the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship. All Malaysian slots on our ATM calendar are currently occupied, but one or two are yet to be guaranteed, so stay tuned for news on this one.

2015 ATM Champion Arief Wismoyono is still going strong on the toughest of terrains