A very cold edition of VTM with temperatures barely rising above ten degrees celsius saw two impressive race winners in Nguyen Si Hieu and Giang Thi Linh. Both were not necessarily surprising, yet the way they accomplished their feats deserves a big round of applause. They also opened their Season 10 points account with 500 , which can be significant further down the line with the season’s championship final anticipated to take place in October. More than 2000 runners took part in this year’s Vietnam Trail Marathon in Moc Chau, with over 300 on the longest distance category of 70km - also the category that offered points for the ATM Championship ranking and Grandmaster Quest.

The men’s race was expected to be quite open with several local runners up against the young coming-man Godwin Mirar from Philippines and France’s Gaetan Morizur for the prizes. Mirar and Nguyen Si Hieu were fastest out of the blocks and had a small advantage over Nhon Trong and Le Quang Hoi, with Adam Nguyen Tien Vo, Gaetan Morizur and Tu Do a little further back. Tomohiro Mizukoshi, fresh from a 4th place at Prenn Trail Summit three weeks ago, was flirting with the top ten. Over halfway, on the way to CP 5, Mirar arrived first by himself with a couple of minutes advantage over Si Hieu. The latter had not yet given up, however. Gaetan Morizur was moving up the leaderboard and was beginning to threaten the leading duo as well, as Le Quang Hoi, Nguyen Tien Vo and Tu Do lost a bit of contact with the fight for podium. The last 20km proved dramatic for 24-year-old Godwin Mirar, as the cold temperatures really got to him and resulted in cramps and an overall drop in performance. Nguyen Si Hieu came back to him by CP 6 and opened up a gap immediately aftewards. Meanwhile, Morizur kept on closing in and would soon also catch and overtake the fading Mirar. When Si Hieu heard that Morizur was chasing him down, it turned out he still had an extra gear and upped the pace again himself. That settled it. He took his 4th career ATM race win with Morizur in second. Nhon Trong also had a strong end of the race and still caught the unfortunate Filipino to complete the podium in third place. Newcomer Le Quang Hoi did well to secure fifth, just behind Mirar at the finish and just ahead of Tien Vo.

The women’s race also saw three, four runners competing tightly for most of the race. However, Giang Thi Linh was always in the lead by herself. Nguyen Nguyet and Malaysia-based Filipino Ritzy Amor were just a few minutes behind and kept the pressure on, even when Linh later admitted she had no idea they were so close. Nguyen Nguyet would more or less keep pace with Linh until the finish to score a great second place. Amor, just like her compatriot Mirar, struggled in the final 20km with the temperature and also lost the podium still to Tran Trang. It’s not always ‘too hot’, it can also be ‘too cold’ for some runners…

The next Vietnamese points race is the Vietnam Ultra Marathon in Mai Chau on the second weekend of March.

Just like a year ago, Vietnam Trail Marathon in Moc Chau opens the new year in the Asia Trail Master Championship series. An incredibly scenic 70km points race, some four hours away from capital city Hanoi, organised by the famous team at Topas. This year, the men’s race will see some of the most accomplished Vietnamese trail runners up against Filipino coming man Godwin Mirar and the Ho Chi Minh City-based Frenchman Gaetan Morizur.

It will be Mirar’s second Vietnam appearance in just two months. However, at November’s Lam Dong Trail in Dalat he was together with Kristian Joergensen when a marshal pointed them into the wrong direction. An unfortunate DNF, and Mirar is keen to set the record straight this Saturday. After all, he has done very well in Vietnam before despite his young age of still just 24. In 2023, he was third behind Onifa and Joergensen in VMM 50km. Trying to win and score a solid result is the objective for the Filipino from Bukidnon now. He is up against some of the most competitive local runners, such as Nguyen Si Hieu - sixth in last season’s ATM Championship Final - , Nguyen Tien Vo, Nguyen Duc Tuan Anh and last but not least Nhon Trong. A few years ago, the latter would arguably be the top favourite on this distance and this type of course - overall quite runable. But Nhon Trong has shifted his main focus on the 100 miles and long ultras in recent memory. Let’s see how much speed and explosivity he still carries on the 70k. Calling Gaetan Morizur a ‘dark horse’ would be weird, but the Frenchman is kind of on the comeback trail as a podium and victory challenger after taking a break as a fresh father. If Morizur is on cue again, then all the others better watch out. He did win races like Dalat just a couple of years ago. Let’s also see what Trung Nguyen can do this weekend. Technically Singaporean but now again living in Hanoi, Trung is also one of those who on any given day challenge for a podium finish.

The women’s 70km also has no 100% clear favourite, and many contenders for a win. Giang Thi Linh is being mentioned quite a bit, and there’s also Vy Le Phuong , Tran Thu Trang and Nguyen Thi Nguyet. In any case, there’s a good chance we will celebrate a new race winner in our ATM series’ history. There’s no Hau Ha or Loi Luong this weekend.

The 2025 edition of VTM has a very big start field for the 70km , with well over 300 participants on the longest distance category. This includes many international runners, so we never really know if someone amongst them can cause the upset. What we do know is that it will be a rather chilly edition, with temperatures forecast not to rise much above 10 degrees. That’s always interesting in a South-East Asian country, where “winters” by default are short. The course is actually a bit short of 70km, and has an estimated elevation gain just shy of 3000 hm. Most of that comes in the first part.

ATM will be reporting live from VTM in Moc Chau from start to finish on our usual channels facebook, youtube and instagram. The 70km race starts at 5am.

On a truly beautiful running day in and around Moc Chau, Vietnam-based Frenchman Valentin Orange won the Vietnam Trail Marathon 70km just inside the course record time set by Quang Tran earlier! It’s Orange’s first ever ATM points race victory in a time of 7h01'40". He ran solo for basically the entire race as co-favourite Hung Hai had an off-day and never challenged for the win. It’s the kind of performance that would make Valentin Orange a favourite for this season’s ATM Championship. Until halfway, Nguyen Si Hieu was able to keep the gap at around 15 minutes, but in the second half of the runable but steep rollercoaster Orange boosted his advantage to an impressive margin of over 1 hour at the finish. Nguyen Si Hieu still got caught by the ever improving Nguyen Duc Tuan Anh (better known as Tu Do) and the two finished side-by-side. Si Hieu admitted that Tu Do had waited for him in the final kilometers. Nguyen Tien Vo was fourth and kept the podium within reach but was unable to close the gap in the end. Hung Hai appeared somewhat disinterested but still finished fifth. Who knows those ATM points can still be important later in the season.. Tomohiro Mizukoshi was running 6th for as far as 50 km, but then began to suffer from the midday sun and dropped down the order quite dramatically to finish 12th. Brian Angwin did well in the second half to take sixth ahead of Luis Alvelais.

Men's Top Results:

1. Valentin Orange

2. Nguyen Duc Tuan Anh (Tu Do) at 1h03'48"

2. Nguyen Si Hieu (VIE) at 1h03'48"

4. Nguyen Tien Vo (VIE) at 1h'18'12"

5. Hung Hai (VIE) at 1h35'42"

6. Brian Angwin (GBR/VIE) at 2h30'17"

7. Luis Alvelais (MEX/HKG) at 2h31'38"

8. Tran Van Bac (VIE) at 2h40'34"

9. Ivan Grigoriev (RUS) at 2h42'46"

10.Nguyen Hoang Nghia (VIE) at 2h49'57"

In the women’s race, New Caledonia’s Leslie Nowicki won convincingly ahead of pre-race favourite Vanja Cnops. It was Nowicki’s first race in Vietnam, and nobody had seen her coming, but she is quite experienced as a trail runner. A surprised Vanja Cnops never realised until only halfway into the race that she was running in second. Still, Cnops admitted she did not have the best of race days and finished 23 minutes after Nowicki. Both Nowicki (5th) and Cnops (7th) finished high up the overall result list, indicating their high level of performance. Vietnam-based Japanese Akane Nemoto, 6th in the ATM Final early December, confirmed her competitive progress in long distance races once more with third place on the podium. Vietnam’s Le Thi Hang came fourth (after running a marathon on each day of 2023) just two minutes ahead of Thailand’s duo Tara Savage and Sutinee Rasp.

VTM was the first Vietnamese points race of this season’s ATM Championship series. The next one is Cuc Phuong Jungle Paths early April.

Women's Top Results:

1. Leslie Nowicki (FRA/NCD)

2. Vanja Cnops (BEL/SIN) at 23'22"

3. Akane Nemoto (JPN) at 1h41'19"

4. Le Thi Hang (VIE) at 2h18'17"

5. Tara Savage (USA/THA) at 2h19'35"

6. Sutinee Rasp (THA) at 2h33'30"

7. Mai Thi Hoa (VIE) at 2h52'34"

8. Thuy Nguyen Thu (VIE) at 3h19'26"

This Saturday, for the first time in its 6-year history, the Vietnam Trail Marathon in Moc Chau is a points race for the Asia Trail Master Championship series and Grandmaster Quest. ‘VTM’ has been the traditional series opener of the Vietnam Trail Series, which also includes September’s classic Vietnam Mountain Marathon, and offers a majestic course across Moc Chau’s tea plantations and peach blossoms. The 70km race is the one for points and starts on Saturday morning at 5 am.

While technically our 9th ATM Championship season already started with Izu Trail and Mt Apo Sky Race last month, VTM is the first points race event in 2024. With also V Trail in Laos, Bagtit Ultra in Philippines and The 9 Dragons in Hong Kong coming up in the next few weeks it will indeed be a busy start. The set-up and regulations for the new Season IX mirror those of the past two years. In each race, the fastest 25 runners (male and female) score points for the ATM Championship ranking and at the end of the season the best five male and female points scorers get an invitation to join the ATM Final race to decide the new ATM champions. This year’s final event is projected to take place at the end of Q3 in September, as we are moving gradually away from the usual end-of-year date in December.

Vietnam Trail Marathon is known to have a runable course that nevertheless has about 3000 metres of elevation gain. Looking at the below course profile, competitors for the win and podium do need to keep something in reserve for the final 20km and all participants better measure their efforts early on as the trails go up almost immediately after the start.

Vanja Cnops has been coming to VTM already quite a few times and the 2023 vice-ATM champion will be back again this weekend to open her new ATM season’s account. The more runable trails suit Vanja a lot , even when the race lasts for 70 km. She is clearly the top favourite in the women’s race this Saturday, but behind her the battle for podium seems quite open. Le Thi Hang, who just completed her Project 365 to run a marathon each day in 2023, will be there, but also Japan’s Akane Nemoto. A 2023 ATM Finalist, Nemoto is now part of Team Mude Sports and after being outstanding in Vietnam’s shorter race distances for years is looking to reach the same level of performance consistency on the 70km. Last September, she won the 70km at VMM but then had a tough day at Lam Dong Trail 75 (5th) before claiming 6th in the ATM Final at Siksorogo Lawu 77km. Thailand’s Sutinee Rasp was 3rd in VMM 70k last season, and Tara Savage - winner of UT Chiang Rai and 13th in the ATM Final last year, are other podium candidates.

The men’s 70km is likely to see a battle between Hung Hai and Valentin Orange, with Nguyen Si Hieu, Tomohiro Mizukoshi, Luis Alvelais, Nguyen TienVo and Nguyen Duc Tuan Anh and Ivan Grigorev heading a larger field of podium contenders. At VMM last September, Hung Hai was back in top form, winning the 100km in a very fast time ahead of Sange Sherpa. Definitely the more experienced runner on an ultra distance, Hung Hai has an advantage over Valentin Orange, who has only really moved up from the shorter distance categories in the last year. Orange does carry a lot of speed with him, and as a member of the Mude Sports Team it will be fascinating to see how he fares against Hung Hai this Saturday. And what to expect of Nguyen Si Hieu? His record lists 9 ATM podiums with 2 race wins. Nguyen Si Hieu is always there and can never be ignored for the prizes at the finish.

ATM will be reporting live from VTM from start to finish, starting at 5am local time.

Hung Hai is the man to beat on the 70km this weekend

Vanja Cnops will be looking to score her 8th ATM points race victory

 

We are happy to announce that Vietnam Trail Marathon in Moc Chau will for the first time be a points race event in the new season of the Asia Trail Master Championship. The sister event of VMM is scheduled for 20 January 2024. Runners aiming for championship and Grandmaster points need to focus and sign up for the 70 km race category.

Vietnam Trail Marathon follows VMM and VJM as the third offering by the Topas Team, and is a wonderful early season event characterised by a not-too-difficult and colourful course thanks to the many orchards with white and pink blossoms. This 70k ultra has everything that Moc Chau has to offer. As usual, participants will go through some remote areas and enjoy a warm welcome by the villagers. The course covers a huge variety of trails and landscapes, taking runners to wild areas rarely visited by anyone but locals. Total elevation gain is estimated at 3000 hm.

Registration is already open, click on the button below.

Moc Chau is also located in the north of the country. The international gateway is Hanoi , from where there’s shuttle busses to the event venue. Travel packages including accommodation are also available as usual. The official website has details. Please also make sure you read the mandatory gear list for the 70k race.

Vietnam Trail Marathon 70 will be the first of two Vietnamese points races in the first semester of 2024. The second one will be Cuc Phuong Jungle Paths in April.