KAR: Milton Amat and Rejlen James cruise to another home victory
Malaysia’s top trail runner Milton Amat ran comfortably to victory in the 110km long ultra of a well-organised Kadamaian Ultra event , also known as KAR Ultra , and is virtually assured of qualification for his country’s team in the ATM Championship Final on 14 September. That will take place in his home State of Sabah as well. Moreover, Milton won the last two editions of Borneo TMBT he started in. The ever humble and timid Milton Amat looks ready to finally become the Asia Trail Master Champion - no doubt supported highly by his own community in Sabah!
In fact, the entire Team Malaysia can dream big. Both the male and female qualifiers for the ATM Championship look very strong on paper, with also Rejlen James again proving to be unbeatable on her home trails during KAR 110. Team Malaysia will certainly try to get the Team Champions title back from the Philippines, whose runners struggled a lot with the heat last weekend at the KAR event. Poy Brillantes summed it up when he finished outside the top 25 on Sunday early morning: “it’s rainy season in Philippines now, no heat training for over a month. We will be stronger in TMBT!”
Indeed, other top Filipino contenders such as Yoyong Sacaycle and Maynard Encornal also failed to feature in the 110k race. Yoyong had started very fast and was even second still behind Gustin Tiam at the second aid station, but then he completely disintegrated and suffered from stomach cramps and the excessive heat. The same for Maynard, who now may need to add The Punisher to his race schedule to make sure he remains within the top five of his country in the ranking. Yoyong himself already set up a plan B and will run Bali Ultra this weekend.
Gustin Tiam thus set the early pace, but by AS 3 Milton Amat had caught up with him. Interestingly, he decided to continue running his own pace for the rest of the day rather than run together with good old Gustin, who himself underlined once again what competitive a season he is having. Haziq Asyraf would eventually take third place , ahead of Jailani Juhili and Wont Kudin, who became a Grandmaster as well.
Rejlen James was dominant in the women’s 110k race from start to finish and looked every bit as different as in Mantra 116 three weeks ago. In Indonesia she struggled to even make the top ten, at home she never even looked back. Adelinah Lintanga initially kept the gap much smaller than usual in long ultras, which was promising as she tends to be more prominent in the second half of races. Accompanied by the impressive Shally Yuson from Mindanao in the Philippines, Lintanga lost more and more time to James, however, as the day went on. After 76km, Yuson actually looked the stronger runner for second place until she also succumbed to heat fatigue and dozed off at a late aid station. She fell back to sixth place. Nevertheless, for her first competitive appearance outside of Philippines, Yuson proved her racing talent and can be expected to use her KAR experience to go for a high placing in the ATM Final, which after all is also shorter at 78km. Behind Adelinah Lintanga, it was then Sabah’s newcomer Dazeree Joannes who completed the female podium. Joannes had started modestly, but ran consistently all day to gradually move up the leaderboard. Great pacing! Especially, given that she kept Mary Joy Sumanda behind in the end. Sumanda, also running for the first time outside of Philippines, scored fourth and that was the best race result of the entire group who came to KAR.
The 60km medium distance category saw a great battle for victory between the ever-improving young Oswald Maikol and Wilsen Singgin. Initially, several others like Jemson Daikin, Vitus Daimi, Yasbie Ismail and Tivel Peter mingled with the front runners as well. Maikol put Singgin under pressure all the time, even dropped him a few times. But Singgin is a warrior who doesn’t ever give up when there’s a potential victory on the horizon. By km 42, Maikol again had a 2-minute gap on Singgin. He then probably lingered a bit too long in the aid station, so that Singgin again had a visual on him as he approached the same station. Indeed, Singgin wasted little time and did not let Maikol to get out his sight anymore. Ultimately, Singgin’s own attack just a few kilometres before the finish proved decisive. Maikol had given too much of himself earlier on, and could not respond. Great win by Wilsen Singgin. Yasbie Ismail completed the top three a long way behind , showing the high level Singgin and Maikol were competing at.
In contrast to the men, Shamiera Auther just seemed to cruise to victory in the women’s 60km - her second win of the ATM season. Leading from start to finish, only a bee sting brought her out of her comfort zone halfway in the race. The still very young Auther will be an interesting runner to watch in the ATM Final. Given her young age and inexperience going beyond 50-60km, Auther won’t have any pressure to perform … but she might as well create a surprise. And she is from Sabah, too.
Lolita Lintanga underlined the competitive progress she has made over the past months to score her first ever ATM race podium. Just like her elder sister Adelinah, Lolita finished second. That’s ahead of Lynda Marylyn in third.
KAR Ultra was part of the ATM Championship calendar for the first time and proved to be a great addition, highlighted by the fantastic arena setting , abundant aid stations, some interesting innovations and welcoming atmosphere. After TMBT and BUTM, Sabah has another trail event to look out for every year.