The 2nd edition of Vietnam Ultra Marathon in Mai Chau lived up to its hype as the men’s and women’s 75km were exiting races to follow from start to end. Both John Ray Onifa and Hau Ha had to work for their new triumph, making it all the more sweet, of course. The Filipino 2023 ATM Champion had to fend off a late attack by the surprising Alex Neyrinck, while the fast-starting Vietnamese 2022 ATM Champion was forced to defend a mere five minute gap against Veronika Leng the entire race. To note was also the superb third place on the podium of Nguyen Si Hieu, who ran the best race of his life to finish ahead of Lodewijk Vriens, Kristian Joergensen and others.

His 15th ATM race win also earns John Ray Onifa his wild card for this year’s ATM Championship Final at Mu Cang Chai Ultra Trail, also in Vietnam on 4 October. Hong Kong-based Briton. Alex Neyrinck, part of the T8 Team, gave Onifa a hard time in the second half of the race as he returned to the front after the long descent. Ultimately, Onifa still had a little extra in the tank for the last hill with under 10k to go to keep the advantage. He crossed the line in 7h15 , three minutes ahead of Neyrinck. Important for the rest of the season, he will run Lantau 70 in three weeks next, which may put Neyrinck in a strong position to get qualified for the Championship Final in October.

Nguyen Si Hieu, winner of VTM 70 two months ago and 6th place at the ATM Final in 2024, outgunned another Hong Konger, Lodewijk Vriens, in the final kilometres to get the podium. Amazingly, this happened just nine minutes behind Onifa. Kristian Joergensen settled for fifth place. He was always there until, a little surprisingly, he wasn’t anymore. He would finish just behind the first female, Hau Ha. Nguyen TienVo was the second Vietnamese runner in the finish, in sixth place. Also for him that was a fine result and an improvement compared to VTM in January. In 7th place, we have fast-starting Le Tan Hi. The Vietnamese runner dropped down the leaderboard after bravely trying to follow John Ray Onifa early on, but managed to catch his breath again and passed Singapore-based American Humberto Baeza, winner of Lam Dong Trail in Dalat last November, in the last section. Britain's Kristian Morgan takes 9th place, and Vietnam's Tu Do (Nguyen Duc Tuan Anh) completed the men's top 10.

In the women’s race, Hau Ha - in her new team colours - opened a small gap early on in the race and then managed to defend those four-five minutes throughout the entire 75km race. Eventually, Veronika Leng, the 2019 ATM Champion, understood the Vietnamese superstar was not going to slow down and crossed the finish line nine minutes behind her. The two global trail stars were split up in the result by Kristian Joergensen, proving what a high level they were performing at. Hau Ha was visibly delighted with her victory after a few weeks of change and turmoil, including a race defeat against the same Veronika Leng back in January. The latter nevertheless confirmed that 2025 is her definite return to the high-performance trail scene.

Third place on the podium went to China’s Wu Yuanyuan, who was basically running on an island - nobody immediately ahead of her, nobody behind her. In fourth and fifth came Tran Thu Trang and Christine Mitchell.

After Lam Dong Trail, Prenn Trail Summit, Vietnam Trail Marathon and Vietnam Ultra Marathon, all four Vietnamese points races of Season 10 have been wrapped up. The next Vietnamese event is the conclusion of our season: the ATM Championship Final at Mu Cang Chai Ultra Trail on 4 October. Runners can of course continue to score ATM points in order to qualify for that Final in all the remaining races on our calendar .

The 2nd edition of Vietnam Ultra Marathon, the newest event by the Topas Team, takes place in Mai Chau this Saturday and appears set to be one of the highlights of the season. Both the men’s and women’s 75km long main race category are filled with some of Asia’s finest trail running talent, including a number of former ATM Champions. Three weeks after winning the 9 Dragons 50km race, 2023 Champion John Ray Onifa is going for his wild card for this year’s Championship Final, but for a new victory he will also need to get passed Kristian Joergensen, Lodewijk Vriens and Nguyen Si Hieu - to name a few. In the women’s, we can look forward to a rather unique dual between 2022 ATM Champion Hau Ha and 2019 ATM Champion Veronika Leng (previously Vadovicova), who is making her first appearance on the ATM circuit since then.

VUM on paper seems to be the easiest of the four events that Topas is putting on each year. The weather can of course throw a spanner in the works. Looking at the 75km course profile, by far most of the 3300 hm is concentrated in the first part of the race, basically the opposite of last week’s V Trail in Laos. As always, this implies participants need to leave something in the tank for the more runable second part. The start and finish is in a place called Ban Lac. Flag off for the 75km is scheduled for 3 am, which implies a few hours of nighttime running.

Since the start of the year, there’s been quite a bit of hubbub around Vietnam’s leading trail star Hau Ha. First, there was a slightly disappointing result in Hong Kong, comprehensively outpaced by Sunmaya Budha and Veronika Leng, and then came the sudden announcement of a change in main sponsorship and two weeks later even a change in her coaching support. After four successful years with Mude Sports, Hau Ha has embarked on a new adventure and VUM will be her first appearance in new colours and with new support crew. How much all of that will be on her mind at the starting line this Saturday remains to be seen, but in any case Hau Ha will need to be focused on the race at hand if she wants to be victorious. Veronika Leng has clearly returned to peak form after the covid years and after giving birth. She’s even not new to Vietnam. In 2019, Veronika scored a fantastic win in Vietnam Jungle Marathon and nearly beat Hisashi Kitamura on that occasion! Side-note: it was super hot that day, too. Both runners have ascended the competitive ladder via ATM in the past and are now genuine world class trail runners. It is unlikely, and very understandably, they will not feature in our ATM Championship for the time being, but we are delighted to seeing them both compete in a race on our circuit once again. Regardless who finishes first on Saturday, the main winner will be the sport and the fans.

There is still a third spot on the podium, of course, with several potential contenders for it. China’s Wu Yuanyuan, Vietnam-based Christine Mitchell and Philippines’ Julie Mae Marquez, if she recovered from last weekend’s Mount Kalatungan 55km in which she finished a surprising second place.

Just how long can they keep up with the men, by the way? John Ray Onifa normally tends to go out very fast, but in recent months he has been showing a lot of maturity and perhaps more clever race tactics than ever before. Onifa knows all of his expected competitors for this Saturday very well. If he allows Kristian Joergensen and Lodewijk Vriens to set the pace initially, it may boost the chances of Nguyen Si Hieu to get in the mix for the biggest prize. Si Hieu is a master-tactician and is coming off a great victory and confidence-boost in Vietnam Trail Marathon last January. For Dutchman Vriens, VUM will be a slight step into the unknown. Based in Hong Kong, we know him from winning the first stage of the 9 Dragons last year. Ahead of Kristian Joergensen that day. Positions were reversed the day after, but it does mean Vriens has the speed to give everyone a run for their money. Let’s also see what Singapore-based American Humberto Baeza can do this weekend. Baeza is the joint overall points leader in the ATM Championship ranking together with Chris Timms. He won Lam Dong Trail 75 in Dalat last November, and also scored a 2nd place in the more technical Dieng Trail Run in Indonesia at the start of Season 10 late September 2024.

Hau Ha: a fresh start this weekend

Back on the ATM circuit for the first time since her title-winning year 2019: Veronika Leng

Winner of VTM 70 two months ago: Nguyen Si Hieu

John Ray Onifa: outstanding at 9 Dragons three weeks ago

The latest brainchild of David Lloyd and his team at Topas Travel is called Vietnam Ultra Marathon and joins the Asia Trail Master Championship and Grandmaster Quest calendar on 8 March 2025. The second edition of this event in Mai Chau, roughly three hours southwest of Hanoi, features a 75km category that is the one to focus on. VUM therefore joins VTM, Vietnam Trail Marathon in Moc Chau, in January on our current 2025 event calendar.

The events organised by Topas, spearheaded by VMM in Sapa, are among the most popular in Southeast Asia every year and we are indeed delighted that we will again have two of them with races for ATM points. Runners who took part in the first edition of VUM last March gave rave reviews of stunning landscapes on beautiful trails between remote villages. As the website describes, the route climbs up to the fabled land of Hang Kia, where Hmong communities live not far from the border with Laos. For many years, this area was completely off the tourist map. Now you can run here and discover another side of Mai Chau.

From a competition point of view, the 75km race profile shows the toughest sections with most elevation will be tackled in the first half. Pure mountain and technically skilled trail runners may need to use these, before the speedsters can get their running pace to work in the second half.

Registration is open already and can be done via the official website of VUM linked below. As usual, there’s travel packages on offer that take the hassle out of everything. Transport from Hanoi departs from the Turtle Lake Brewing company, same as for the other events organised by Topas.