David Giannelli doing a Bolt - a fantastic winner of this year's Mesastila 5 Peaks

Italy's David Gianelli was the surprise winner of last weekend's Mesastila 5 Peaks Challenge in the beautiful Mesastila Resort & Spa in Central Java, Indonesia. Giannelli, who hails from northwestern Lombardy but recently moved to Australia, was part of a leading trio consisting also of Jason Robinson and local hero Arief Wismoyono, which decided the pace of the race from the get-go. Other favourites such as Fandhi Achmad, Wilnar Iglesia and Isaac Yuen Wan Ho missed the early breakaway and never got into contention for the victory. Achmad struggled with his poles, and Yuen Wan Ho with a knee injury sustained halfway in a fall. On th way up to Merbabu Giannelli managed to go solo with Wismoyono and Robinson still close behind him. After a short dip in pace during the Merapi descent, Gianelli steadily increased his advantage again on the second Merbabu climb and the remaining Telemoyo ascent to win in 18:12! Indonesia's own Arief Wismoyono arrived a superb second in 20:05. The 2015 ATM Champion, who won this race two years ago, managed to drop Jason Robinson in a descent. He is back at his best level and regains the top spot in the ATM Championship ranking with 2400 points in five races. Robinson struggled with stomach cramps in the final stages to complete the course in 21:33:43. In fourth was Fandhi Achmad in 22:31:49. Muhammad Fauzi had a strong second half and came home fifth (23:09:22). The same applies for Aris Sopiandi Muklis, who was number six in 23:53:34, overtaking Philippines ' Wilnar Iglesia in the last section (24: 54:09). Malaysia 's Yim Heng Fatt edged out Isaac Yuen Wan Ho for 9th place. The Hong Kong runner got an injured knee that prevented him from running in the last 30k. Isaac moves up to third place in the ATM Championship, still behind Steven Ong, but ahead of Yim Heng Fatt.  

Arief Wismoyono took the bull by the horns and with success: 2nd and new leader in the ATM Championship!

As last season, Malaysia's Tahira Najmunisaa won the women's race in 25:01:15. She dominated from start to finish, but got sick and suffered from fever in the final hours. Tahira is back on top of the ATM Championship ranking and remains undefeated in 10 ATM points races! Ruth Theresia and Shindy Patricia completed the podium, but well behind the Malaysian. Theresia deserves great credit as she actually tried to keep up with her ATM championship rival, but had to let go and as she was 'rebooting' , Shindy Patricia caught up and the Compressport duo stayed together for the rest of the race. Jocelyn Cheung from Hong Kong is a fantastic fourth place today. Lily Suryani came in fifth. One place behind Suryani, who finished her seventh race of the season! - was the astonishing Eni Rosita. One year after being victim of a crazy acid attack, Eni returned to Mesastila to finish the race she could not finish last year.  Respect. 

Tahira: still undefeated in the ATM series and again on top of the ranking!

Shindy and Ruth came home together for second, but well behind Tahira

On the 65k, Pablo Diago Gonzales eventually had the better of young Malaysia talent Mohammad Affindi in 11:16. After a tight battle between the two runners, the Spaniard went solo on the last climb of the race and still scored a gap of 31 minutes. It is Pablo's third ATM race victory of the season and he does a great job for the ATM Championship ranking! Indonesia 's Yurika Chen - also in just his third trail race ever - completes the men's podium in third place. Vincent Chalias is a great fourth place today. Dzaki Wardana did not make it to the finish, missing out in a lot of ATM Championship points. 

Kim Matthews was the fastest 65k woman in just over 14 hours. Two weeks after winning the Vietnam Mountain Marathon, Matthews is the closest competitor to new championship leader Tahira Najmunisaa! It's very close between the top 3 women now: 1. Tahira 2600 (5), 2. Kim Matthews 2585 (5), 3. Ruth 2575 (5)

Pablo Diago Gonzales watches the finish of Malaysia's Mohamad Affindi after both competed hard for the victory on the 65K 4 Peaks race. 

A new face in the Indonesian ultra trail scene: Yurika Chen

The Indonesia SuperTrail in the 2017 Asia Trail Master Championship series brings a fantastic cast to the Mesastila resort in Magelang, Central Java, this weekend. Not only the top of the Indonesian trail scene signs present, but also plenty of regional trail stars keen on battling it out for the championship, and the prestigious honour of winning or scoring a podium in this by all means very tough race. Not just the main 100K, in fact, but also the 65K B-race will be hotly contested by well-known runners. 

Let's commence, of course, with the 100K that starts in the early hours of Saturday morning. Last year's champion and King of Indonesia (for winning Rinjani 100, MesaStila 5 Peaks and BTS Ultra 100 miles) Jan Nilsen will be back to defend his title after a season plagued by injury. Nilsen looked competitive at the end of July in the Mantra Summits Challenge, wherein he was overtaken by Fandhi Achmad only in the last flat section to the finish. But just how well his foot has healed remains a question, and the same Fandhi Achmad could again be his main foe this weekend.... only over double the distance as at Mantra. The Jakartian runner is making a move now on the Asia Trail Master Championship tour after winning two Candidate Races in six weeks. Three weeks ago, Fandhi Achmad also claimed the technical Bandung Ultra 100 win and races like Mesastila and BTS Ultra are definitely his cup of tea. While he is unlikely to still feature for the overall ATM Championship title this season, Fandhi Achmand can take points away from the others, such as his compatriot Arief Wismoyono. The 2015 Asia Trail Master champion - and winner of Mesastila Peaks Challenge that year - is currently in third place in the ATM standings and will be competing with Hong Kong's Isaac Yuen Wan Ho for the points lead in the absence of Steven Soonseng Ong. The Malaysian returns to action in Thailand soon at UT Chiang Rai, and may see both Wismoyono and Yuen Wan Ho overtake him as they finish their fifth points race of the year.  It will be interesting to see how they fare this weekend. Can Wismoyono at last grab another big win against top opposition, and can Yuen Wan Ho finally get rid of his label as "the nearly man". The sympathetic Hong Konger has a subscription on podium places in the ATM tour but so far he has only scored one victory: HK 168 last season. Fr sure, Yuen Wan Ho will recognise another runner at the start line this weekend, because he finished second behind him in the Magnificent Merapoh Trail race last year. Jason Robinson is another top international runner to watch out for. While Mesastila has about six times the elevation gain of Merapoh, Robinson is no rookie in trail running and might as well benefit from the fact he is relatively unknown on the ATM circuit. The same applies for a Filipino runner, who is coming over from Manila to show something: WIlnar Iglesia. According to insiders, Iglesia is no underdog to Manolito Divina when it gets rough and tough. Moreover, at Penang Eco 100K this year, he proved he can run a fast pace, too. Iglesia finished second behind Ong last May. Iglesia and Robinson are the main dark horses for the race win this weekend. Other contenders for the podium in this kind of mountain ultra are as always Yim Heng Fatt, still second in the ATM Championship with already five race results in his pocket this season, in-form Hendra Siswanto, Muhammad Fauzi - third last year - , Pramonosidi Wijanarko, Alan Maulana, Aris Sopiando Muklis and Abdul Aziz. 

A year ago Tahira Najmunisaa Muhammad Zaid crowned herself as the Asia Trail Master champion here at Mesastila with a superb win in extreme conditions. This weekend that will certainly not yet happen, although the Malaysian can haul herself back to the top spot of the ranking in her fifth points race of the season. Interestingly enough, her main rivals to date are ALL present at Mesastila as well. Championship leader Lily Suryani will take part in her seventh points race of the season and will be looking to improve on her 4th place of Tahura Trail and Merapoh Trail. Second-placed Ruth Theresia started her remarkable performance progress at this event last year, and by all means she should be able to stay closer to Tahira on this occasion. Could an upset be in the making? In an ultra everything is possible. Ruth looked tremendous in February, but in races over summer some fatigue seemed to have slipped in. The Bandung Explorer has taken it easier since last month, and she may benefit from that now. Another important female runner to watch is Australia's Kim Matthews. The winner of the Vietnam Mountain Marathon two weeks ago will be doing the 65K this weekend to preserve energy for the final big races this year. If she wins that, it could prove to be a smart move because also in the female 100K there is a 'guest runner' who in the very least can challenge for the podium. Sydney-based Indonesian Valin Helam may be a few years older than her contenders, but she has the wherewithal to deliver a lesson to the youngsters on a good day. The same applies, albeit to a slightly lesser extent perhaps, to Shindy Patricia. The Malang runner is always a podium candidate and can do a good job for her own ATM ranking this weekend. 

Tahira Najmunisaa Muhammad Zaid

Ruth Theresia

The 65K for men carries a lot of weight as well. The three top favourites are all serious ATM protagonists as well: Pablo Diago Gonzales is a double 70K race winner this year, and Yogyakarta's Dzaki Wardana won the 100K Ijen Trail last May. Moreover, Wardana was second behind Jan Nilsen on the 100K at Mesastila last season. Both of them will need to watch out for up-and-comer Mohammad Affindi from Malaysia, a teammate of Tahira at Malatra. Affindi delivered quite a statement last August to compete with Sefli Ahar at the Merapoh 100 in only his first 100K trail ultra! Again, Merapoh and Mesastila are two different animals, but Affindi himself claims he is even stronger at higher elevation trails! 

As usual you can follow the action live on facebook and instagram this weekend.