After a successful edition as a Candidate Race last July, we are happy to announce that Muspo Ultra 50 will be a new points race for the Asia Trail Master Championship and Grandmaster Quest in the southern Philippines in 2020! Muspo Ultra 50 features a 80km race (50 miles) to focus on - in the context of ATM - and is scheduled for 18-19 July.

Organised by a well-experienced group in Bukidnon, Mindanao, Muspo takes you the hilly terrains of Mount Musuan of Maramag and around the majestic Lake Apo of Valencia. With about 650 meters of elevation, Musuan Peak gives you a panoramic view of the province. Lake Apo gives you a mystical feel of nature with the lake and nearby mountain ranges.

The event offers 3 more distances: a 50-kilometer distance for experienced runners and a 30-kilometer distance that’s friendly for novice and newbie runners and a 10k. Note that only the 80km race matters for the Asia Trail Master points.

The trails are quite fast and runable with some portions that are technically challenging, which matches the profile of main sponsor Hoka One One’s shoes being a fast racer and still have aggressive lugs to keep you safe on technical surfaces. Total elevation gain for the 80km is around the 3800 hm mark.

MUSPO ULTRA 50 is not only a run but it’s a haven to connect with nature and marvel at its beauty. Now is the #timetofly at Muspo!

Registration Start: 20 December 2019.

Connect to the Muspo Ultra 50 facebook page to stay up to date with latest developments

It is a pleasure to announce the renewed cooperation between Asia Trail Master and the popular Japanese kinesio taping brand New-HALE. Also at Asia Trail Master promoted events, we see increasingly more runners using colourful tape to protect themselves from potential injuries. New-HALE, established by Mr Koji Akuta, is one of the pioneers in the technology, and will please participants in our series with its great products and service.

For those people not yet so familiar with kinesio taping, this is a rehabilitative taping technique that is designed to facilitate the body’s natural healing process while providing support and stability to muscles and joints without restricting the body’s range of motion. It is a therapeutic technique not only offering you the support you are looking for, but also rehabilitating any affected condition as well.

New-HALE has a wide range of items in its catalogue, but in ATM the focus is on the V Tape and the X Tape. Both these are easily available in Asia outside Japan thanks to our preferred retail store Gone Running in Hong Kong (see link below).

V Tape

This innovative pre-cut V-shaped tape is super flexible to applied on the calf, knee, shoulders or waist to provide targeted support. It is loved by professional athletes around the world and also used in many medical treatments. The tape is made of smooth LYCRA blend cotton fabric, which offers great resilience and joint support, such as elbow or knee, perfect for athletic taping.

X Tape

Ankle taping for professional top runners of trail running and ultramarathon. It stops not just sprain but also prevents overpronation to sustain resilience of runner's ankle, transferring propulsion force into higher performance. It sustains the angle of 90 degrees of ankle and foot to reduce stress and burdens on foot. Simple "X-type taping" makes it easier for ankle support. Support by the elastic material LYCRA. Tape of lower elasticity provides both fit and fixed power. Acrylic rubber 100% prevents losing power. Sweat and water-resistant taping surface with high quality glue substance prevents it from peeling off. Ankle Fixed-Up To Step Up Performance Of All Sports!

We are happy to introduce Monkeys Trail as the second Thai points race in the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship series. Organised by Teelakow, which also brings you UT Chiang Rai, UT Koh Chang and Moon 100, this event takes place on the popular holiday island Koh Samui on 16/17 May. The points race for the ATM Championship and the Grandmaster Quest is the 100km category.

This year all the events under the ‘3 Islands Trail’ are part of the ATM Championship, topped by the Thailand SuperTrail, Ultra Trail Chiang Rai in October. The Monkeys Trail will set up its arena at the Teeparatpittaya School on Koh Samui and has 4 am on Saturday as the starting time for the 100km, which features over 5000 metres of elevation gain.

To get a feeling of what the Koh Samui trails are like, have a look at the below teaser video. Registration is opening very soon.

More than 3600 runners took part in the 8th edition of the Tahura Trail event in Bandung, Java, Indonesia, of whom 620 on the 42 km trail marathon - the opening points race of the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship season. As in 2018, Hong Kong-based Canadian Jeff Campbell grabbed the race win ahead of Alessandro Sherpa, Hishashi Kitamura, Pablo Diago Gonzales, Ando Akihide and last year’s winner Mohamed Affindi. Running conditions were quite ideal for Bandung standards and this translated in fast times. Campbell went below 4 four hours for the first time in the race’s history.

In the women’s race, France’s Charlotte Taquet from Hong Kong’s Gone Running Team had a rather comfortable maiden race victory in ATM. Taquet has her eyes set on the Championship title this season and could not have wished for a better start of her campaign!

Below is the video race report of the main contenders’ finish arrivals.

A fantastic men’s podium with Kitamura clearly aiming for something in the coming months …

A new face and new ATM race winner: Charlotte Taquet!

Ando Akihide was a very strong fifth place, overtaking Mohamed Affindi in the final section!

Taifuk Hidayat was the best male Indonesian this year with 7th place

Jeff Campbell in his element at Tahura Trail: his 2nd victory here in 3 years

Alessandro Sherpa confirmed the good vibes from MMTF: he’s back at his best with possibly more to come!

After taking a bit of a very welcome break since MMTF, Hisashi Kitamura settled for third but did not forget his trademark ‘Karate Kit’ jump!

This Saturday Tahura Trail kicks off the 6th edition of the Asia Trail Master Championship series. The traditional season opener in Bandung, Indonesia, has smashed its own record and attracted well over 3000 participants including several elite runners from the Asian region for the 8th edition of the country’s biggest trail event in terms of participant numbers. The 42km long trail marathon remains the main race category on which finishers will collect their first ATM Championship points of 2020.

While several event organisers every year feel a need to increase the distance of their longest race, Agung Adijani of IBA stays with 42km ‘because the course works’. For sure it does. Tahura Trail has a bit of everything you can expect of a trail running course. While it is shorter than most, the 1800 hm of elevation will make itself felt and the technical sections are challenging for each participant. While the weather gods treated the runners well in the past two years, rainfall in Bandung can always turn Tahura into a bit of a mudfest as well. As such, nothing is a given in this race and even the fastest legs sometimes get beaten by those with more overall strength and technical skill. Last year’s winner Mohamed Affindi is a prime example of that when he had the better of the theoretically quicker runners Pablo Diago Gonzales and Tomohiro Mizukoshi.

Malaysia’s Affindi is returning to Bandung this weekend in an attempt to repeat last year’s performance and kickstart his 2020 ATM campaign. Work commitments in the army prevented him from living up to his full potential for most of last season, but according to his team Malatra manager Razif Yahya he will have more opportunities for focused training and racing in the coming months. While Singapore-based Spaniard Pablo Diago Gonzales will be one Affindi’s biggest rivals again this Saturday, arguably the top favourite is 2018 winner Jeff Campbell.

The Canadian from Hong Kong, running for our preferred retail store partner Gone Running-Joint Dynamics, is indeed coming back to Tahura Trail and with more than just this one ATM race in mind. Inspired by John Ellis and perhaps even more by Veronika Vadovicova, Campbell has stated he wants to give the championship a go. The Slovakian phenomenon proved that you don’t need to win a series of 100k races to get the points needed to claim the ATM title at the end of the season. Her longest race in 2019 was the last one in Taiping: 84 km. By exploiting his experience of two years ago Campbell is looking for the best possible start of his championship campaign. He won’t get the victory presented on a silver platter, though. Aside from the aforementioned contenders Affindi and Diago Gonzales, Campbell will need to deal also with Alessandro Sherpa, Hisashi Kitamura and the motivated local hero Yusuf Aprian. Together with Margono, Sherpa was the one pushing Campbell forward in this race two seasons ago and is arguably now in better shape than then. Karate Kit is making his debut in Bandung and we know his amazing speed on the medium distance. In the case of the Uglow Asia leader we need to wait and see how well he has recovered from a very long and tough 2019 season, in which he of course finished as runner-up to Ellis in the ATM Championship. Yusuf Aprian is still the youngest of all the known podium contenders and is keen to improve his performance once again. Aprian is part of the famous Bandung Explorer Team of Arief Wismoyono and Ruth Theresia and reportedly wants to give the ATM Championship a go this season. As such he may become a favourite for the new and soon-to-be-introduced T8 Trophy for the ‘Best Youth Runner’ in the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship series.

Other potential podium contenders in the men’s race are the inevitable Rudi Iskandar, Stephen Dundon and Aris Sopiandi Muklis (the 2019 Indonesia Trail Master). The beauty of the season opening race is of course that we may always discover new names…. such as Asuka Nakajima last year.

Asuka Nakajima burst onto the ATM Scene by winning Tahura Trail ahead of Sri Wahyuni. This weekend, however, both runners are not on the start list. The women’s 42k race could become a race between two Asia-based French ladies: Charlotte Taquet and Josephin Anselin, and local hero Ruth Theresia. The latter’s participation in the 42k is still a bit in doubt given her busy racing schedule coming up with also the 9 Dragons in Hong Kong and the EcoTrail Al Ula in Saudi Arabia as targets for her new ATM campaign. In the last two years, Ruth has indeed used the 21K B-race at Tahura as a speed test and may opt to do that again. On paper, though, a podium on the 42k should be a given. Josephin Anselin is based in Jakarta and known as a very fast marathon runner, but she has been out of racing for a long time due to persistent injury that plagued her last year. If Anselin is fit, she could be the measure of things although her relative lack of experience in trail may boost the chances of Theresia and of Charlotte Taquet. Keen ATM fans may remember that name from the 9 Dragons last year. Indeed, she won the 50km. That was not a points race then (this year it is!), but note that Taquet beat none other than Kim Matthews and Sandi Menchi that day! Running for the T8 Team of John Ellis, Taquet has been put forward as a challenger for the women’s ATM Championship. As usual, ATM will be reporting LIVE from the events also this season via our facebook page and instagram primarily. The 42k race coverage at Tahura begins on Saturday early morning around 6 am.

Mohamed Affindi on the way to victory at Tahura last year

Jeff Campbell returns to Bandung after winning here two years ago

Yusuf Aprian is Indonesia’s young hope for competitive trail running

There’s always a great festive vibe at the first event of the new ATM season!

We are delighted to announce Unived as our latest partner and official nutrition partner of the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship series.

Founded in India in 2010 by Amit Mehta who has been fascinated by healthy, conscious living and healthy food since childhood. Unived promises to offer you innovative, quality, vegan healthcare products that are inspired by nature and based on research, and are manufactured at our 100% vegan facility. Enthusiastic about running and trail running himself, Amit has already taken part in a couple of ATM events and has also been supporting, a.o., 2018 ATM Champion Ruth Theresia and local up-and-coming Indian talent. On top of that, Unived counts several world elites in its team roster, such as Hayden Hawks, Harry Jones, Camille Herron and Laura Kline. A clear testimony to the fine work and of course the quality of the Unived range of nutritional products.

Unived products are made in wonderfully small batches with extreme care and detail. Products are free of unnecessary ingredients that act as fillers. Instead, they are full of standardized natural ingredients which means ‘wholesome goodness’ . Moreover, all products are 100% vegan, and Unived is proud to be registered by the Vegan Society – UK, as well as certified by PETA India.

Unived and Asia Trail Master will collaborate on various levels across the year, throughout Asia for all the ATM points races. Top finishers in the Asia Trail Master Championship races can expect lots of special goodies from Unived.

For more details and product orders, please see the Unived website and facebook page for special announcements. Unived products are also available via the online store at Sportlicious Malaysia.

As every year, we take a moment to highlight the National & Regional ATM Champions in some of the key countries in which points races take place. The Asian runners who scored most points in the 2019 ATM Championship compared to their own compatriots. Some names are a given due their protagonist status in the overall ATM Championship, but other names are lesser known and also deserve a little credit! Here’s the list and a big congratulations to them!

We are happy to announce BIX Hydration as a new partner of the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship series. Bix is the world's first recovery hydration tablet with 11 vitamins and minerals improving your recovery and allowing you to perform at your best! Exactly what you need if you run a lot of races.

Each BIX tablet contains a.o. vitamins C and E, Q10, magnesium, zinc, potassium, BCAAs, calcium, sodium, and bromelain.

As the website reads, Bix Hydration was founded by Vlad Ixel, a professional trail and ultra runner who has won over 100 running races around the world ranging from 5k road races to 100km trail races. ​ Vlad is also an accomplished triathlete - previous world number one age grouper for the 70.3 ironman distance. For years Vlad has been using hydration tablets for recovery right after exercise, he would take 4-6 different tablets to give his body the right amounts of vitamins and minerals for the best recovery until he decided to create a recovery hydration tablet that had it all. ​ After 2 years of research and development with a top sports laboratory in Germany, he finally launched the world's first hydration recovery tablet, Bix Recovery!

Have a look for more details on the Bix website, and read the testimonials of a.o. ATM Champion John Ellis. Bix can be ordered directly on the website, but is also available via our retail partner Gone Running in Hong Kong (and online).

Echigo Country Trail has become a classic event in our Asia Trail Master Championship series as it has been a points race since 2016. The colourful 53km race in the Oguni Forest Park outside Nagaoka in Niigata has also grown in the Japanese trail scene itself with over one thousand participants in the last two seasons. The 2020 edition will build onto the success of the past five years and is set for its traditional weekend on 20/21 June.

Echigo Country Trail will, naturally, appeal to the faster trail runner, but sometimes those also get a small shock during the race. The course is not as easy as it may look on paper. Some of the forest climbs are very steep and even have ropes for those who need. The elevation profile is well-balanced with the final big bump coming after km 41.

The event is known for the enthusiastic support it receives from the local community around Nagaoka. For those coming from outside the country, Echigo offers a fine glimpse of rural life in Japan. This is emphasised when you stay in the traditional guesthouses or join the communal bathhouse. A welcoming show in the local town hall on Saturday afternoon is another feature participants have come to appreciate a lot. As a result, the opening ceremony now has a separate registration process that will be launched in May. The reason: there’s just too many runners now who join Echigo. This comes highly recommended and we will remind runners of this add-on come May.

To get to the Echigo Country Trail, you need to make your way to Tokyo or to Niigata directly. A few countries in Asia have direct flights to Niigata. Otherwise, it’s easy from Tokyo as well. Take the shinkansen to Nagaoka. There you could book accommodation, too. Shuttle services are foreseen between Nagaoka and the event venue at the Oguni Park.

New in 2020 is also that after five years, Hiroaki Matsunaga has left Echigo and no other than Yuta Matsuyama, who won Ultra Trail Chiang Mai in Thailand last August and has run Echigo several times himself, is now the new race director of the event.

The race registration is now open. Note that only the 53km is valid for ATM Championship points.

Yuta Matsuyama, winner of UT Chiang Mai last year, is the new race director of Echigo Country Trail

We are delighted to announce that Cameron Ultra will be the first Malaysian points race in the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship on 25/26 July. The very popular event, organised by BOLT Events, will celebrate its 5th anniversary this year and it will be the first time runners can score points for the ATM Championship and Grandmaster Quest on the 100 km race category. Registrations open today and are expected to be completed very quickly, indeed.

Cameron Ultra takes place in the Cameron Highlands in the state of Pahang, and is one of Malaysia’s biggest tourism drawcards. Apart from its tea plantations, it is also one of the country’s coolest weather spots. The event offers routes that are a mixture of jungle section and tarmac section for all categories with additional gravel section for 60km and 100km categories. All categories will traverse through Mount Jasar (1684 meters) while the 30km, 60km and 100km categories will also traverse through Mount Berembun (1825 meters). In the context of ATM, only the 100m race category is of relevance for points. The winner of the 100km (m/f) will score 500 points for the Championship and each finisher collects 1 point for the Grandmaster Quest as well.

Cameron Ultra is known among trail experts as quite runable with breathtaking tea plantation scenery, yet throughout jungle sections expect trails to be technical, covered with tree roots, slippery ground, high steps, steep ascends and descends and several rolling hills. Not for nothing the 100km category has a total elevation gain of close to 5700 hm. Runners must take a cut-off time of 30 hours into account, which is flexible but still forces you to keep moving. If you come to Cameron for the ATM Championship or the Grandmaster Quest, the event’s tagline is well-chosen and no coincidence: “be prepared be very prepared” !

Apart from the race itself, the event offers pre-race activities such as Cultra Market, Cultra Tea Party, Local performances and more. ​ Cultra provides fun, excitement, and a unique experience to runners, family, friends, and spectators alike. Registration for this Malaysia flagship event is expected to go quickly, also given the time of year - end July - is excellent in terms of positioning.

Registration by ballot opens today. The duration for ballot registration is from 10th till 31st January. Successful applications will be notified during the duration as well. There will be a few waves of approvals. Each approval will be given their respective dateline to complete the registration by making payment. Failure to do so, your slot will be forfeited and given to those in waiting list.

Highlights of 2019 edition of Cameron Ultra

 

In the past few months we have received a lot of interest from India in our Asia Trail Master Championship series, which is a clear sign that the trail running sport has taken off in the large South Asian country. Today we are happy to announce Deccan Ultra as a 2021 ATM Candidate Race, scheduled for the weekend 8/9 February. The second edition of the event features four race categories of which the longest measures 115k and 4850 hm ascent. There’s also an 80km (3500 hm), 55km (2100 hm) and 30km (1370hm).

Deccan Ultra is set up by Grand Indian Trails and with Nupur Singh and Sandeep Kumar has two directors who know what distance and trail running is about. The races are on trails nestled deep within the Sahyadri Range, offering mesmerizing views of the Deccan Plateau. The Deccan Ultra route includes the highest peak of Maharashtra, Kalsubai at an altitude of 1646m and also the toughest triple-trouble forts in Sahyadri; Alanggad, Madangad and Kulanggad, commonly called the AMK.

The route is a mix of easy-ascent slopes as well as treacherous rocky outcrops overlooking the valley below. To climb the near-vertical slopes there are iron ladders along the course. The 115km and 80km category circulates around the Bhandardhara dam and involves climbing 5 forts and the Kalsubai peak

To get to the event, the easiest international connection is Mumbai - 165km away , which translates in a 4h car drive. A shuttle bus service from Mumbai is available in the early morning of 8 February. Local event accommodation is centred around the Akolemaza basecamp, which is a campsite. Please take a look at the event website for further details on logistics. The button link is below, as well as the race registration, which is still open.

We are happy to announce our first ever Candidate Race in Sarawak, the Malaysian state to the south of Sabah and Brunei on the island of Borneo. Jagoi Heritage Trail Run is an ambitious project to the benefit of the Bidayuh ethnic group and its 3rd edition is scheduled for 4 October 2020 in Balai Kampung Duyoh.

Organised by Grit Event Management, Jagoi Heritage Trail Run will feature three race distance categories of which the 50km is the main event. Those who prefer shorter can opt for the 20km and 6km races. This is an ancient rainforest trail, but still with elevation gain of nearly 1300 hm for the 50km. This elevation comes very much at the end of the race with the ascent of Bung or Mount Jagoi.

Jagoi Heritage Trail Run takes  place on the Bidayuh ancestral ground of Jagoi located in Bau and is 50km away from the state capital of Sarawak, Kuching. That is also the international gateway. The lead objective of the event is encouraging the local residents to embrace ecotourism as another source of income. Bidayuh is a collective name for several indigenous groups of people living in the southern part of Sarawak. The name “Bidayuh” means “people of the land”. They are the second most numerous group of Dayak tribe after the Iban, and they also have their own language (see YouTube clip below).

For more details on this 2021 ATM Candidate Race, please check the website and join the event’s facebook page.

Those runners with more time on their hands could explore the Jagoi Heritage Trail Run as final preparation for the Malaysian points race in ATM, Ultimate Trails of Penang, the following week.