We deeply regret having to share the news that this year's Cordillera Mountain Ultra in Philippines has been postponed from 18 November to December and is therefore OUT of the Asia Trail Master Championship series' calendar. As a direct consequence, Matanao Mountain Marathon in Mindanao on 14/15 October will be the fourth and last Filipino points race event of the current ATM season until further notice. We apologise for this unexpected development, especially to all runners who had already planned to run CMU as part of their ATM Championship strategy. The last three opportunities to score points ahead of the ATM Final in Indonesia on 2/3 December are now MMTF100 & MMTF50 (Malaysia), Lam Dong Trail 75 (VIetnam) and Malnad Ultra 100 & 50 (India).

Risqi Kurniawan took his third ATM race win in Indonesia within little over a month and increasingly looks like a top favourite for this year’s ATM Championship title. Kurniawan outran a stubbornly tough Han Ching Su from Taiwan and his compatriots Akmad Nizar and Sobari Herdiana on the 50km of Bali Ultra Trail in Kintamani. On the 100km, Rachmat Septiyanto took his premier ATM race victory while Shindy Patricia proved her super-form again with her third ATM win of the 2023 season!

Bali Ultra Trail changed the race courses at the last moment to avoid potential repercussions following political statements that climbing Bali’s mountains would very soon be outlawed. This made the race more runable than originally planned, but it still proved tough enough - also due to the heat & humidity plaguing especially the many Japanese athletes.

The 50km was on paper the most competitive distance category and so it turned out to be. As said, Risqi Kurniawan again showed his amazing speed on this distance and it will be interesting to find out if he can stretch that to 77km on 2 December. What should help him in any case: he ran Siksorogo last year and Gunung Lawu is close to his hometown of Magelang! Team Indonesia is building up very nicely with also Akmad Nizar almost assured of qualification for the ATM Final. Nizar has been operating in the shadow of Kurniawan, but consistently so and the smart youngster can certainly produce something special at Siksorogo himself. Team Indonesia will also feature Bali-based German Thimo Kilberth, who had his best race of this season by finishing sixth and “only” 33 minutes behind Kurniawan. Fifth went to the second Taiwanese Pin Chi Chou. Great to see runners from Taiwan feature in an ATM race for once!

The women’s 50km developed into a tight battle between Japan’s Nami Ishihara and Germany’s Katrin Herzog. For a long time, Ishihara had the upper hand, but Herzog came back towards the end and managed to overtake her for the win. In third came Singapore’s Dening Lo, followed by Hszin Tzu Chao from Taiwan and Indonesia’s Siti Nuraini, who probably would have preferred to climb Mt Batur and Mt Abang. Bali’s home runner Dian Pradina had a great performance to finish sixth.

On the 100km, Japanese aces Yuta Matsuyama (male) and Tomomi Bitoh (female) set the pace for the first half, but both began to fade as a result of the climatic conditions and saw others coming back to them. Matsuyama was with Indonesia’s Abdul Salam at first, but he would DNF later and the experienced Rachmat Septiyanto was the one to claim the victory at the end. Second in Mantra 116 seven weeks ago, Septiyanto scored his first ATM race victory and is actually as good as qualified for the ATM Final and Team Indonesia. However, he is the lead organiser of Siksorogo Lawu Ultra and Septiyanto obviously cannot do both things. Matsuyama boosted his chances for qualification in Team Japan. Japan’s Takeshi Hashimoto was the third man on the podium, ahead of Vietnamese runners De Nguyen and Trung Hau Phan. Australia’s Washington Firmeza came sixth in another ATM race finish this season.

Shindy Patricia was chasing Tomomi Bitoh for a long time, being just a few minutes behind the strong and experienced Japanese runner. As often, Shindy is the one who slows down the least in the second part of ultras, and so it was again. In fact, Shindy went on to win comfortably but finished even second overall behind Septiyanto. Matsuyama came next but then it was Vietnam’s Julia Nguyen Thi Duong - in another wonderful performance of the weekend. Tomomi Bitoh still salvaged her podium in third.

Within just 2 months, Central Javanese youngster Risqi Kurniawan has propelled himself into a top fabourite position for the 2023 ATM Championship title.

Podium of the 50km women with Germany’s Katrin Herzog as winner

Wonderful to see a runner from Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) on the podium! Han Ching Su

Rachmat Septiyanto takes his first ever ATM race win

Third ATM victory of the season for in-form Shindy Patricia

Podium of the 100 km women

Podium of the 100km men

The 100 miles began at 6 pm on Friday night, which gave runners about 90 minutes to get warmed up before nightfall. Henry Yang from Singapore, whose goal was to complete his Grandmaster Quest, arrived first at the 11km aid station. A rather usual fast start by him, which was brave given Henry DNFd in Penang Eco a few years ago. He knew that this race is much harder than it looks on paper. Eventually, Henry would overcome serious feet and blister issues to finish the 100 miles and achieve his ATM Grandmaster status! Saiful Anuar from Malaysia was also aiming to reach the Grandmaster finish, but he will have to wait a bit longer as Penang Eco did get to him and he did not finish this one. 

The battle for the race victory was decided by Wilsen Singgin and Amierul Amin, as was to be expected. Rasyid Salehuddin, Tuan Hafandi Bin Tuan Ismail and Chong Teck Shuin followed and would determine the third spot on the podium. It was the very experienced Tuan Hafandi who grabbed it in the end. Up front, Singgin and Amin digested the conditions and the distance together until the final 30km, when the experience and toughness of Singgin began to prevail over the freshness of Amin - one of the 2023 season revelations in ATM. In the very tough final 10 km of the race - described as ‘sadistic’ by many - Singgin proved he still had quite a bit of juice in the tank as he ran more than 1 hour away from Amin to take his 3rd career ATM win, his first since MMTF in 2021. Not that it means much, but his finish time was 33h55’. When Singgin is in shape AND focused on a race, he is always able to deliver something special - especially on long and tough mountain trails. 

Sally Yap felt in trouble, sprained her ankle and was strangely worried about the cut-off time for most of Saturday until a welcome heavy rainshower cooled her off, and she started to get some pace in the legs. At that point, however, she was somehow one-and-a-half hours behind race leader Celeste Teo, with Hong Kong-based Australian Meg Sterling between them in second place. Both the Sarawakian and Sterling were having their debut 100 miler. Sterling was the race winner of Dark 45 in Hong Kong last season, an event coming up again on 1 October. Amazingly, all three women would suddenly find themselves together at the 106km aid station before the second sunset of their race. Sterling was struggling with knee pain and was reduced to power hiking the rest of the distance - which she did, and so third place was hers. Behind, Yvette Chong was the last survivor as all other women pulled out, but Yvette also had to throw in the towel at km 136 suffering from gastroentretis. Unsurprisingly, Sally’s raw talent came to the fore and she completed the final 50 km in first place to win in 42 hours. A welcome victory for the 2022 vice-ATM champion, which will be confidence booster with a view to what is still coming later this year. 

Penang-based Briton Alex Tilley took the 100km race, his second ATM win of the season after V Trail in Laos in February. Tilley had to work for it especially in the first half, when Achmad Tanjong, Jeffery Budin, Lim Wen Shan and Hijazi Rija Bin Mat Juri were keeping up and even setting the pace. Budin won UTOP in Penang last year and had the confidence he runs well on these trails, Tanjong showed in Mantra last month to be in great shape and Lim Wen Shan was the short distance dominator in Malaysia a few years ago, but now moving up in distance.  For a while, it actually looked like Lim Wen Shan was going to drop the others.  Then, the additional kilometers  compared to what he is used to in race trim still proved to be a big ask. Tilley and Budin took over command, and soon after Tilley would be on his own. Budin did not give up easily and was hanging just six to ten minutes back for quite a while until he realised that he was not going to close the gap anymore. 

In the women’s 100km, Lim Siet Fah lived up to the expectations and won her second ATM race after last season’s Borneo TMBT 100. She was never really bothered by the others to obtain the victory. Her second result of the season after a fifth place in Sierra Madre Trail in Philippines, where she perhaps underperformed a bit. The battle for second and third on the podium was exciting to follow all race with many position changes between Roan Biguasen, Goh Pei Fen and Heliana Arshad. Their tussle continued right into the final section, and it was local Goh Pei Fen who outran the two others for second. Busy bee Biguasen scored her fourth ATM podium of the season in third. 

100km award ceremony for men

Award ceremony for 100km women

Award ceremony 100 miles men

Bali Ultra is one of the most anticipated points race events of the 2023 ATM season and the last one in Indonesia before the country of islands hosts the Championship Final on 2 December. That means for those Indonesian runners who do not like or can travel abroad, this is the final shot at a points haul to try and get in the top 5 of the ranking and inside the host Team Indonesia. No surprise that many of the country’s trail running stars feature on the start list, but there’s a very large foreign presence as well, notably from Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia.

The event takes place in Kintamani, in the volcanic north of Bali. Many people might have heard already that the local governor has recently been pushing for an outright ban on climbing Bali’s mountains, including the famous and very popular Mount Batur - highlight of plenty a tourist visit to Bali and of Bali Ultra Trail. Whether or not the ban will effectively come into law still remains to be seen (a formal decision in September is rumoured), but the organisers of BUT have seen no other choice but to comply already, so as not to potentially jeopardise the event’s future. The consequence is that both the 100k and 50k are now much more runable than originally planned, as also the ascent of Abang has been omitted from the course. Good and fast distance runners, rather than volcano climbers will thus likely be seen at the top of the leaderboards and result lists this weekend.

On paper that means the Japanese runners, if they can deal with the tropical heat, are arguably the top favourites for the podium places and the race wins - at least on the 100k. Yuta Matsuyama in the men’s, and Timomi Bitoh in the women’s will indeed be the ones to beat. Matsuyama, double winner of UT Chiang Mai over the years, also wants to win to collect the 500 ATM points. He has expressed his desire to be part of Team Japan in the ATM Final this year. He already scored a 6th place in Dalat Ultra Trail in March, but now he is in better shape again than half a year ago. There can always be a surprise, e.g. from Vietnam, but his main rivals are probably going to be Solo’s Rachmat Septiyanto and Fuminori Kondo. Septiyanto may find the new course a bit too flat for his liking, though. Tomomi Bitoh was 2nd in Seoul 100k last year, and has just done a long ultra in Mongolia. Question thus is if she is recovered enough from that to deal with the rejuvenated Shindy Patricia, who has never looked faster and stronger than in the past eight months. Julia Duong Thi Nguyen, Isabelle Bedard and Qheiza Wiranda Edelwise are other podium contenders we know.

Patricia aside, most of Indonesia’s current top runners are on the 50k, including Risqi Kurniawan. He won this race last year and it is hard to bet against him this weekend, but there’s many unknowns on the start list. Akmad Nizar could be strong on this course as well. What about Taofik Hidayat, Sobiri Haerudin, a motivated Thimo KIlberth - who actually likes the redesigned course from his competitive point of view? Misha Ushakov looked solid in Mantra until he abandoned.

On the women’s 50km, former ATM champion Ruth Theresia features on the start list, but it is not clear yet which distance she will run after her nasty kidney infection a few months ago. Ruth is still on the way back, but showed great promise by winning the 30k race at Mantra. This weekend, Mantra 60 winner Siti Nuraini could secure her spot in Team Indonesia for the finals. Let’s see how she fares on the more runable trails. Many podium contenders also here, including Malaysia’s Jess Lintanga, Halimatun Sa’adiah, several japanese runners such as Yuuka Maeno, Novita Wulandari (winner in Dieng a month ago), Yustina Wardhani and so on.

Siti Nuraini, double winner of Mantra 75, can qualify for the women’s Team Indonesia this weekend

Rachmat Septiyanto was 2nd in Mantra 116 and hopes to collect another podium en route to potential Team Indonesia qualification at the ATM Final

Tomomi Bitoh is one of the favourites in this weekend’s 100km race

Shindy Patricia: what can she do now the course is more runable?

This weekend we have one of the oldest ATM points races on the menu in Malaysia. Penang Eco - this year La Sportiva Penang Eco - was part of our very first season in 2015 and since covid alternates on our calendar with event management company Endurance Nature’s second Penang race UToP. Bukit Mertajam is still the host town and the programme still features a hot and treacherously tough 100 miles and 100 km as ATM points races. Both races have a great start list and we can expect a nice competition for the race wins.

Penang Eco’s victory list has a lot of former ATM champions on it, such as John Ellis, Alessandro Sherpa, Tahira Najmunisaa and Manolito Divina. It says something about the difficulty of the course, which perhaps does not really show when looking at the map and the profile. The sting is usually very much in the tail, with hard technical jungle sections following a very runable section that drains the legs - also due to the traditional sweltering heat in Penang. In previous editions, several top runners have completely disintegrated in the final 20 km of this race. Penang Eco is never over until it is over.

It is therefore a little surprising that Malaysia’s young star Sally Yap has chosen this race as her first 100 miles try ever. The tall Sarawakian and vice-ATM champion in 2022 has already proven to cope with 100km very well, and now wants to try the longer distance. But there’s easier options in ATM for a miler debut. This season, Sally has a 2nd place in Koboi 50 under her belt and actually needs to start collecting some more points to safeguard her position in Malaysia’s female ranking and get qualified for the ATM Championship Final in Central Java on 2 December. Siksorogo Lawu is a course that should suit her even better than Mount Apo last season. This weekend she can expect competition from, a.o. Australia’s Megan Sterling, based in Hong Kong. Sterling won the Dark 45 points race last October. Other contenders are experienced runners such as Celeste Teo, Cheryl Bihag, Siriporn Leumathong and Siti Hajar Razali. And last but not least Irish Glorioso. Irish went very well in UToP last year (2nd) and is eyeing qualification for Team Pilipinas again with another good showing this weekend.

The men’s 100 miles probably has Sabah’s Wilsen Singgin as the one to beat. Singgin has developed himself over the years as the long ultra specialist. However, there’s other talent on the start list that could make his life difficult. Amierul Amin is one of the surprising newcomers of this competitive season, and will use his debut 100 miles experience at Borneo Miler in June to try and challenge Singgin. Other contenders are Rasyid Salehuddin, Jit Shiang Ang, Ben Siong Lee and maybe Singapore’s Henry Yang - who aims to complete his Grandmaster Quest this weekend. Henry actually started Penang Eco before, but DNFd on that occasion. It will be a sweet finish if he succeeds this time around.

The 100 km race features Jeffery Budin - the stunning winner of UToP 100 last October. Can Budin repeat that feat also in Bukit Mertajam? He will be facing some strong other runners such as Britain’s Alex Tilley, a resident in Penang. Basically a home race for Tilley as well, and he is one of those who excel when the going gets tough. Ahmad Tanjong ran an excellent Mantra 65 last month, and could leap to centre stage this weekend - who knows? On the start list we also have Lim Wen Shan, a fast short distance specialist. In the women’s 100k, Roan Biguasen will be eyeing her fourth ATM podium of the season. Soh Sum Mei, Carly Balmforth and Mindanao’s Manilyn Mamugay are other challengers for podium placings.

We will be reporting live from La Sportiva Penang Eco from the start on Friday evening to the finish, on our usual channels.

Jeffery Budin won UTOP 100 last year. Can he repeat on the 100km of Penang Eco?

Abdul Rasyid Salehuddin is a fresh Grandmaster, and doing well in the Championship, too

Wilsen Singgin is hoping to score a new ATM race victory on the 100 miles

Alex Tilley returns to the ATM scene in his now-home area, Penang

Roan Biguasen is looking for another podium spot in this weekend’s 100 km

Last year’s exciting newcomer on the ATM scene returns on 25 November. Malnad Ultra in India’s Karnataka region near Bengaluru in the southwest, is the last points race event of the 2023 season ahead of the championship final and a great trail experience in what is still a new destination. The 7th edition of Malnad will offer again 100k and 50k race courses for points, and also a 30k for less ambitious runners. The event takes place in the heartland of Indian coffee at elevations ranging from 800m to 1500m above sea level.

The origin of the name Malnad is attributed to Male meaning Hill and Nadu meaning Land. So, Malnad is the land of the hills. The organisation is in the capable hands of the Global Initiative for Restructuring Environment and Management (GIREM), and further driven by a large team of enthusiastic volunteers. The races are runable, but challenging and across various types of terrain with accumulated elevation gain of approx 3400 hm for the 100 km and 1700 hm for the 50 km. The races mostly go through the vast coffee plantations in the area. The precise course maps for 2023 will be made available within the next few weeks, as the start and finish location is planned to be changed.

The courses take runners through the Mudigere area in the State of Karnataka, which has Bengaluru (previously known as Bengalore) as its capital. That big city is also the international gateway to the event. From there, busses will take runners to Attigundi, roughly 5 hours away, where the event is held. Please note Malnad Ultra is a trail adventure and takes place in a remote area so allow for enough time to reach the final destination. Also, be aware that mobile connectivity may be limited on many parts of the course.

International runners are recommended to email the event organisation or Asia Trail Master directly for details about transportation options to the event site. Accommodation is mostly pleasant homestays - with great food! - and are plentiful in the area. Detailed information about travel, accommodation and touristic options are available on the official website of Malnad Ultra now.

Do not hesitate too long because there is a quota of 200 runners for 100k and 300 for the 50k. This is India’s most popular trail running event and always fills up.

ATM Grandmaster Shashwat Rao won the 100k at Malnad last year

Dalat in the Central Highlands of southwestern Vietnam is quickly becoming the epicentre of trail running in the country. Prenn Trail Challenge is the latest event born in the outdoor tourism and culinary hotspot and promises to be very distinct from the already established Dalat Ultra Trail and Lam Dong Trail. Not only will Prenn Trail Challenge take place on 31 December - Yes, New Year’s Eve - the event venue and race courses are also different. The event is managed by Unique Events & Media and hosted by the Tea Resort Prenn at Prenn Pass Foot, Da Lat City. It has received the ATM Candidate Race label.

The event features four race categories, of which 80km is the longest and 15km the shortest. Elevation gain for the long distance is moderate at 2600 hm, and remember Dalat is on high plateau of about 1500m above sea level, which leads to cool temperatures for running on most parts of the day. Runners will go through pine forests, tea and coffee plantations that are typical for the Dalat plateau. Highlight will be the Prenn Pass, leading to Pinhatt Peak - the highest point of the course offering a wonderful panorama over the region and the Tuyen Lam Lake. Cut-off time is 20,5 hours for the 80km, which means the big majority of participants should be able to finish and celebrate New Year’s at the event venue.

Runners can reach Dalat via air or land. There’s a domestic airport in Dalat, but you can also take a bus or hired car from Ho Chi Minh City (estimate 5-6 hours drive to Dalat). Accommodation is plenty and can be found easily online.

Registration is open for this one-of-a-kind trail into 2024!

Please check all event details via the official website and facebook page.

What a run by John Ray Onifa last weekend along the Myanmar border in the far north of Thailand! The Filipino trail star gave a pure demonstration on the wet and slippery mountain forest trails of Akha Trail to win his second ATM race in a fortnight in an incredible time of 9h57. That’s 80 km with 5500 hm elevation gain! Onifa finished nearly four hours ahead of second-placed runner, Thosaeng Kunno, at this moment. He finished just before midnight, unfortunately when the whole village had already gone to sleep. It's the 7th career ATM victory for Onifa, which is one fewer than Hisashi Kitamura's eight wins.

Two weeks after comfortably winning MUSPO 100 in Philippines, Onifa felt confident from the start and immediately opened up a gap during the first, steep kilometre uphill through the Ban Pha Hee village. The others never saw him again. Young and upcoming talent Thosaeng Kunno - winner of Trail of Man in Chiang Mai six weeks ago - did not resist and focused wisely on his own pace in his first ‘long’ trail race ever. Kunno was joined by Chanil Thanguan and Wanna Sri Ati, with Hungarian Miklos Viczena a bit further back rounding up the top five. The weather conditions deteriorated halfway into the race as rain fell harder down on the forested hills. Wanna Sri Ati was unable to keep the pace up and would eventually DNF, leaving the podium to Kunno and Thanguan. Onifa was unbothered by the slippery conditions and kept running impressively forward, eyeing a sub-10 hour finish. Despite the high pace, it looked like Onifa still had an extra gear left should that have been needed to win the race. He is truly in contention for this year’s ATM Championship title now.

The women’s race was also dominated by one runner: Soingern Teekayu led from start to finish as well. Teekayu is still a relative newbie in trail, and this was her first ATM podium and so also her first ATM race victory. A finish time of just over 18 hours and eighth place overall is certainly a fine statistic for Teekayu.

A new mountain trail in Thailand this weekend by the established event organiser teelakow along the border with Myanmar. There’s quite a bit of mystery hanging over the race courses, but one thing seems certain: it will be tough. The 80km is the category that matters for ATM Championship and Grandmaster points, and on the start list we find none other than John Ray Onifa, just two weeks after his splendid victory in MUSPO 100.

Akha Trail stems from the people inhabiting the mountain region, an ethnic group spread out over mountain areas in Thailand, Myanmar, Yunnan (China) and Laos. The Akha people are quite well-known on the tourist trail for their colourful and distinctive traditional customes. Their home terrain here in Thailand , where the event takes place, is spectactular mountainous jungle with a number of caves in the mix as well. Runners will face a challenge, especially on the long distance of 80km with over 5500 hm. The course goes up and down, although there’s one long uphill climb, too, that follows a long descent to the second checkpoint at km 14. The last 20 km will be a test of strength, for sure.

John Ray Onifa, Filipino but highly familiar with the Thai trails, will logically be the one to beat. Despite only a fortnight since MUSPO, he says he also feels good as he didn’t go full throttle in Bukidnon. Potential challengers are podium contenders Miklos Viczena, in-form Narin Kongsiri and Thosaeng Kunno, the surprising young winner of Trail of Man in Chiang Mai six weeks ago. For Kunno this race will be a step into the unknown - his first long distance trail,and a technical one. The Chiang Mai resident is keen to learn fast, though, as he enjoys competing against the best. The Thai trail community vibe also suggests there’s quite a lot of as yet unknown talent on the start list.

In the women’s race, Thailand’s Issaree Kengnok will be trying to score her 3rd ATM race victory and her first since 2017. Her last ATM performance was 2nd in UTCR 125km in 2020. 

We will be reporting live from the start at 14:00 local time on Saturday on our usual channels (ATM Facebook, YouTube, Twitter) with further multimedia updates also on ATM Instagram. 

 

After last weekend’s ATM ‘blockbuster’ weekend with three different points race events in three countries, the action will continue next week in Thailand with the anticipated 78km long Akha Trail along the border with Myanmar. All trails lead to Siksorogo Lawu Ultra in Indonesia on 2/3 December - our big ATM Championship Final this season VIII. These are all the remaining events for you to score points and try to get in the Top 5 of your country in the ATM ranking, in order to be invited for the Final race of 77 km on and around Gunung Lawu (3200m) in Central Java. 

Events & Points Races

5 August - Thailand - Akha Trail - 78 km 

19 August - Indonesia - Bali Ultra Trail - 100km and 50km 

19 August - Malaysia - La Sportiva Ultimate Trails of Penang Eco 100 Miles and 100 km 

2 September - Malaysia - Borneo TMBT Ultra - 100 km and 50 km 

16 September - TBC soon 

23 September - Vietnam - VMM - 100 km, 70km and 50km 

1 October - Hong Kong - Dark 45 - 45 km

14 October - Philippines - Matanao Mountain Marathon - 70 km 

21 October - Thailand - UT Chiang Rai - 250 km and 115 km 

28 October - South Korea - Ulju Trail 9 Peaks - 125 km and 45 km

4 November - Malaysia - MMTF - 100 km and 50 km

11 November - Vietnam - Lam Dong Trail - 75 km

19 November - Philippines - Cordillera Mountain Ultra - 50 km 

25 November - India - Malnad Ultra - 100 km and 50 km 

ATM Championship Final:

2 December - Indonesia - Siksorogo Lawu Ultra - 77 km 

Season IX to start 9/10 December 2023

10 December - Japan - Izu Trail Journey - 70 km 

Full ATM Championship Ranking on 29 July 

Link: https://m.racetimingsolutions.com/rankings/search/run/2023 (filter by nationality)

Three months after his bad tumble in a very wet Korea 50k, Hisashi Kitamura bounced back with his 8th ATM race victory at the very nice Mount Daisetsu Trail Journey event near Asahikawa in Hokkaido, Japan. The UGLOW Asia ace took the bull by the horns despite limited training in the past months and ran away from the field immediately after the flag off at sunrise. Running with a protective cast on his wrist, and stitches on his right eye lid, Kitamura found a course that perfectly matches his trail abilities. Given the dry weather and trail conditions, one could say Mt Daisetsu Trail was the best possible comeback race for him.

The event is a classic in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan, which has seen some of Japan’s best runners over the years, but also because there’s simply few other trail running competitions there. Now under a new management led by Mr Hiroya Genki Kon - himself a fervent runner with ATM experience - Mt Daisetsu Trail has serious ambitions to become a marquee race in Japan and Asia as a whole. This year’s edition certainly hit bull’s eye when one listened to the reviews of the participants. Trung Nguyen even stated that the 3 km long volcano ridge line halfway into the race was ‘the most beautiful trail ever in ATM’ !

As Kitamura was feeling comfortable leading the race at the km 35 checkpoint, another local runner was feeling at ease, too, and even catching the ‘Karate Kit’. Suguru Seo caught him before the 40k mark, which was an impressive feat. The question then was: how does Kitamura react? Plenty of runners’ morale would sink in their shoes at that point, but the 2022 overall ATM points champion is not easily shaken anymore. The duo stayed together until the very last hill in the conclusive section before the finish. Kitamura, with all his race craft collected over the years, attacked and got rid of Seo for the race victory. From a pure competitive point of view, this was a great win by Kitamura, who proved once more that when he is fresh he is very difficult to beat. Suguru Seo obviously was an excellent second just a couple of minutes behind, and we hope to see him again soon on the ATM tour. Third place went to Yuichi Ogawa, who tried to keep up with Kitamura in the first 15 km. Ogawa struggled to reach the finish and salvage his podium. Takaomi Tsubouchi came very close in fourth. The top 5 was filled by Hiroshi Ishikawa. Tomohiro Mizukoshi finished in 8th place after a strong last section, and Singapore’s Trung Nguyen completed the top 10. Trung had had a fantastic start, passing through CP 1 in 4th place, but then went off course. Still, top 10 is a fine result for him and qualification for Team Singapore in the ATM Championship Final beckons once again. For Kitamura, it was the second win of the season after Cuc Phuong 42 and so he now sits at 1000 points.

The women’s race looked like it was going to be an easy win for Sapporo-based Moeko Yasugahira. However, towards the end, the winner of last year’s Seoul 50k was put under pressure by Yukie Kohayase. It explains why Yasugahira looked quite exhausted for a short while as she reached the finish (see video). For her it’s the second points haul of the ATM season, and normally that should give her a spot in Team Japan for the ATM Final once again. Last year she finished 6th on Mt Apo.

Local Suguru Seo gave Kitamura a proper challenge during the race, but eventually had to settle for 2nd

In just a matter of a few weeks, Javanese runner Risqi Kurniawan has totally emerged from the shadows and has proven to be a serious force on the medium distance ATM circuit. In a very interesting direct race against ‘good old’ champion Arief Wismoyono, Kurniawan took his second ATM race win in a fortnight. Last Sunday, the youngster outpaced Wismoyono by a big 34 minutes on the 48km long Dieng Trail Run and cements his recently gained status as the Indonesian benchmark on the 50k. With his victories in Mantra 65 and Dieng 50, he now has 1000 points already, which could be sufficient to secure his spot in Team Indonesia for the ATM Finals. He is also scheduled to run Bali Ultra 50 next month. On our facebook page, you can watch a short interview with the new Indonesian trail star. Arief Wismoyono himself secured his wild card for the Final at Siksorogo Lawu Ultra as a former ATM Champion (2015). In his post-race interview, he showed his class by admitting Kurniawan is now too fast for him on 50k runable courses, and that he is looking forward to running with him in an attempt to win the ATM Championship for Indonesia.

The race started at midnight and was held at an altitude of 2000m and above, which felt very cold for many runners. Kurniawan and Wismoyono immediately set the pace, followed by Kasmana, another new name from Bandung. Kasmana is a protégé of Wismoyono and finished third, less than 10 minutes behind his mentor. Singapore’s Chris Timms was trying to keep up as he had podium ambitions, but went off course early on and that saw his chances evaporate. Timms settled into fourth together with Thimo Kilberth, who had his best ATM race in a while. Sumatra’s Andre Sinaga unfortunately twisted his ankle badly and retired from a race that could have brought him into a position to join Team Indonesia in December. Sinaga, second in Orang Utan Trail ahead of Timms and Kilberth, will need to try again in Bali Ultra next month.

The women’s competition in Dieng was won by La Sportiva’s highly experienced and popular runner Novita Wulandari. Her first ATM race victory. Indah Julita, a.k.a Meili, came second and Qheiza Wiranda Edelwise third. For Edelwise it’s her second points result of the season, which puts her now in second place behind Shindy Patricia in the women’s Indonesia ATM ranking. Bali Ultra on 19 August will be an important event to get into the top five as that will be the fourth and last Indonesian points race of the 2023 season before the big championship final event at Siksorogo Lawu Ultra in Central Java on 2/3 December.

The men’s podium with Kurniawan, Wismoyono and Kauswana

Novita Wulandari and Meili : the two fastest women in Dieng Trail Run 50 !

Qheiza Wiranda Edelwise scored 3rd on the podium in her 2nd ATM race of the season!

The three podium placers plus Chris Timms and Thimo Kilberth as fourth and fifth