The 10th anniversary edition of The Punisher on Samal island, just off the coast of Davao City in Mindanao, Philippines, had a fantastic competitive field as the last points race of Season 9 in our ATM Championship. Several runners required points or had to defend their ranking against others to ensure qualification for the Championship Final in Malaysia next month. As was to be expected, there was both joy and drama at the finish of the 50 miles or 80km race!

Starting with the women, Angelie Cabalo proved once more that she is arguably the fastest trail runner in her country at present. Sadly enough for her, even a second back-to-back victory after Bali Ultra 80 a week ago did not give her a top five spot in the Filipino ATM ranking. Cabalo only competed in three races this season, and in a country with so many competitive runners that proved to be insufficient, despite two wins and one second place. The ranking is based on a ‘best-of-four’ system and her compatriots all ran at least four races this season. Cabalo will have to wait and see if any of the five qualifiers cannot make the trip to Borneo TMBT. These five are Julieann Morales, Shally Yuson, Cristine Montuya, the surprising Irish Glorioso and Mary Joy Sumanda. Also Ann Jilian Pulanco dropped out of the top five, finishing “only” 9th last weekend. That was right behind Sumanda, who had been running strongly in second place most of the day but then was shown the wrong direction by a marshal. A classic, which shows again that one should not blindly follow marshals as many are just volunteers with no knowledge of the actual route -even if they should have. Sumanda was convinced she failed to qualify for team Pilipinas as a consequence, but alas her trip to KAR Ultra and the 50-point abroad bonus she got for that saved her. Irish Glorioso has had a remarkable boost in competitive form over the past 2-3 months and that results in her third consecutive qualification for Team Pilipinas. That in itself is unique for her country. Glorioso was one of three protagonist women who missed the start at 3am by half an hour. The other two were Morales and Manilyn Mamugay. The latter threw in the towel around halfway, Morales still managed to get fourth, just ahead of Glorioso. Ahead of them was the duo of Shally Yuson and Cristine Montoya, finishing together without pushing too hard - Cabalo was too far ahead anyway. Cabalo in fact finished fourth overall alongside Jomarc Ferrer.

Jomarc Ferrer turned out to be one of the great positive surprises of the day, in fact. Keeping up as well as he could with the trio of Jevie Cagatin, Kik Suello and Eldy Bulod, Ferrer had an outside chance of sneaking into the men’s ranking top five, and thus Team Pilipinas, and he took it. Of course, he did not have it in his own hands, but he did what he have to and as it turned out, Maynard Encornal had a complete off-day finishing just 18th. With Florence Alave not running as he cannot make it to TMBT anyway for family reasons, Ferrer entered the top five and is in the team! That came also at the expense of Sean Aying. The Grandmaster ran a great Punisher race himself, finishing in sixth, but his other results of the season were not always of the same level. Jevie Cagatin, Kik Suello and also the very young Mt Apo winner Isaiah Paraiso overtook Aying on points last weekend. Paraiso coming in fifth, Cagatin third and Suello a joint winner with Eldy Bulod. The duo dropped Cagatin in the final 9km and decided not to sprint for victory. Bulod plays no role in the championship “play-off” , as the Punisher was just his second ATM points race of the season. Note, however, that the young and upcoming Bulod stated he will aim for it next year. He also admitted that Suello was arguably the faster of them, in line with what insiders said during the race. Suello is a dark horse for TMBT. So is Cagatin, who finishes the season as number 1 in the Filipino points ranking.

Also Jeremy Ritcey (8th, Hong Kong) and Risa Kamiya (6th, Japan) ensured their qualification for their teams in the ATM Championship Final next month.

Angelie Cabalo was again outstanding, just a week after Bali 80

Shally Yuson and Cristine Montuya arrived second and third

No fourth victory for Julian Morales, but a fine run to fourth place nevertheless

The 10th anniversary of The Punisher on the holiday island of Samal in Davao Del Norte will see some fantastic racing between Filipinos trying to make their country’s team for the ATM Championship Final in Malaysia next month. Nearly everyone will be on the start line of the 80km, except John Ray Onifa who has a wild card already. Even Arnie Macaneras, who also collected his wild card at MUSPO last month, is joining the party. After all, this was Macaneras’ breakthrough race in 2019, when “out of the blue” he finished between Hisashi Kitamura and John Ellis here on Samal island. Great to see the Davao runner paying respect to his roots, and to Doi Calbes’ event, which is one of our series’ most underrated events. The Punisher has a great combination of runable and technical sections, demanding trail runners to use their full arsenal of skills. 80km, or 50 miles, is not nothing, but this course is doable for those who like to give an ultra distance a first try , too. The race starts at 3am , so there will be some 2,5 hours before sunrise, too.

While Arnie Macaneras is the logical top favourite in the men’s race, it will be very interesting to see who can stay close to him tomorrow. Several protagonists such as Jevie Cagatin, Maynard Encormal, Eldy Bulod, Isaiah Paraiso, Sean Aying, Kik Suello and Jomarc Ferrer are all still in the game to join Onifa and Macaneras in the team next month. Yoyong Sacayle completed his campaign last week in Bali and has a slender points lead over the others. However, Sacayle had a tough day at KAR two weeks ago, not giving him any points, and his 9 Dragons early in the year was also not great-great. That means his position in the ranking is vulnerable as the others will now do their fourth race, or try to eliminate the worst result of their previous four races. Florence Enciong Alave is the only one of the contenders not running this weekend. Private commitments prevent him from competing in Borneo TMBT anyway.

On the female side, we will have similar scenario in tomorrow’s all-deciding points race. Everyone at the top of the ATM ranking is competing: Shally Yuson, Cristine Montuya, Julie Ann Morales, Ann Jilian Pulanco, Irish Glorioso, Mary Joy Sumanda, Manilyn Mamugay and last but not least Angelie Cabalo. The latter is coming to Davao having just won Bali Ultra 80 in impressive style a week ago. Cabalo does need the points, as The Punisher will only be her third race of the season, while the others will end up with four, five or even six ATM races. It’s a’best-of'-four’ system, so Cabalo has put herself in a complicated situation. She may start the race as the one-to-beat, based on her performance a week ago. However, she will have to deal with last year’s winner Julie Ann Morales, who is from Davao and unbeaten in this season’s ATM points races. Morales looks like a certain qualifier for Team Pilipinas next month - provided she add a few points to her total this weekend. What can in-form Shally Yuson do tomorrow? She looked strong at KAR 110, before a knock of the hammer due to heat exhaustion threw her off the main podium at the very end. If she has recovered, it will be interesting to see how she fares against Cabalo and Morales. And what about Montuya and Pulanco, the last two female winners of Sierra Madre Trail 75k? They will probably mainly focus on Glorioso, Sumanda and Mamugay.

As usual, there’s also several international competitors in The Punisher. These can be important this weekend as they can take points away from the Filipinos. Risa Kamiya from Japan, a Mantra 116 finisher in fourth place last month, is one example of those. Kamiya herself is trying to get herself qualified for Team Japan next month, and so are a few runners from Brunei, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Lantau 70 organiser Jeremy Ritcey, for instance, is a very solid competitor who will certainly aim for a podium spot or a top five placing at The Punisher.

ATM will be broadcasting and reporting live from The Punisher event on Samal island starting at 2:45 am local time.

2022 ATM Champion Arnie Macaneras returns to the event that made him known in 2019: The Punisher

Jevie Cagatin is one of those promising Filipino runners who can get himself assured of the ATM Final

Can previous Punisher winner Julie Ann Morales score a 4/4 this season?

Three Top 4 placing early this season put Ann Jilian Pulanco in a great spot to make the Championship Team

It was almost a repeat of the 2019 men’s race at The Punisher on Babak Samal island, just off the coast of Davao City. Hisashi Kitamura and Arnie Macaneras finished one and two again last weekend, and Godwin Mirar was third, whereas three years ago he was fourth. While that may sound a tat bit boring, the race certainly was not. Local hero and man-with-a-mission, Arnie Macaneras pushed Kitamura a lot in the nighttime hours after the start at midnight. However, as in Cameron Ultra a month ago, Kitamura is not only running with his legs this year, but also with a truckload of racing experience and a very healthy mindset. At around halfway the 80k race, the Japanese UGLOW runner shifted to a higher gear and managed to open up a gap. At the finish, his race time was just 3 minutes slower than in 2019, even though Kitamura said he felt a bit tired and struggled with some pain in his knee and foot. Nevertheless, it’s victory number 3 this ATM season and Hisashi Kitamura is assured of a spot in Team Japan for the 2022 Asia Trail Master Championship Final on Mount Apo in Philippines on 17 December. Macaneras opened his ATM account this season with a second place, after DNFing at MUSPO three weeks ago. Same for Godwin Mirar, still only 22, in his first ATM race this season. Yojo Sacayle took fourth and Sean Aying fifth. Former winner of the Punisher Rexell Aguirre claimed sixth place.

In the women’s race we saw the first ever victory of Julie Ann Morales. The 30-year-old from Tagum took her first ATM podium at MUSPO three weeks ago, finishing a few minutes behind Ces Wael in her first 100km race. Last weekend, she finished 26 minutes ahead of the same Ces Wael! Both of them and Emily Raga battled for victory throughout the race, but Morales again seemed to have most juice left at the end. If she keeps improving at this rate, could Morales be the dark horse in December’s ATM Final?

Julie Ann Morales scored her first ever ATM race win after a 3rd place at MUSPO three weeks ago

Another second place for Ces Wael

Godwin MIrar, still very young, completed the men’s podium