On a beautiful blue sky day in Mu Cang Chai, Vietnam, Nepali runners coped the best with the very hot conditions to deliver a clean sweep in the 11th Asia Trail Master Championship Final. Homlal Shrestha and Sunsari Rokaya won the individual champion titles and Team Nepal also regained the team championship they lost to Japan last season. The 72 km long race offered astonishing views of rice terraces pleasing all the participants, including the 3500 runners in the open public race categories. The dry conditions and the very competitive start field this season also resulted in a blistering pace, which suited some and hampered others.
The new ATM men’s champion Homlal Shrestha is, indeed, mainly known as a road marathoner. When Team Nepal’s coach at the event, Aashish, tipped Shrestha as the top favourite on Thursday before the race, he made eyebrows raise. Homlal Shrestha is already 42 and had been around for a couple of years, but had never won an ATM race before and always settled for podium or top five. In Season 11, he did show better form with two second places in MTR 50 and Jumla Rara 50 in his home country. Those two results got him qualified as the fifth male Nepali runner. Everyone knew he had pace, but eyes were more set on Gopal Tamang and Dhir Bahadur Budha.
Those two and Shrestha joined Hisashi Kitamura and Kik Suello in an early attack after the race started at 5am, still in the dark with sunrise 47 minutes later. Interestingly, defending champion John Ray Onifa and 2024 champion Jeff Campbell, who also fancied his chances on the Mu Cang Chai course in the dry, did not follow the move. Kose Rodarte from Hong Kong, coming back from stellar performances in Berlin (road marathon in 2:28 and half marathon Copenhagen in 1:11) made good on his ambition to also give it a shot on the trails in Vietnam. Tipped as a dark horse for the victory, given the dry conditions, Rodarte did feel the fatigue of the past weeks including the intercontinental travel and would later fade away. By CP3, the leading quintet still had a gap of a few minutes over Campbell, Onifa, Milton Amat and Vietnam’s Sung A Phu and Quang Tran.
Title defender Onifa said he was aiming for a sub 9-hour finish during an interview at Friday’s race pack collection, which seemed very conservative. With hindsight, one could wonder if he therefore deliberately did not join the early breakaway from several of the other contenders, thinking they’d blow themselves up. The three Nepalis are known as 50k runners, after all, and Kik Suello had never before shown this kind of pace - even though he had kept on improving ever since he joined ATM competitions two-three years ago. A motivated Hisashi Kitamura with all his experience across all race distances looked like the most dangerous runner at that moment. It was also Karate Kit’s “last chance” to finally clinch the ATM title, as he will be moving soon to the US for professional reasons.
At the next sighting of the leaders at CP 5, km 40, the situation had changed. Not Dhir Bahadur Budha and not Gopal Tamang, but Homlal Shrestha appeared first and on his own. His two compatriots, also one-by-one, arrived a few minutes later, with Budha looking heavy-footed. He would also drop down the leaderboard and finish 8th. Kik Suello still held on extremely well and was in fourth place, ahead of John Ray Onifa and Milton Amat! In fact, the Sabahan looked most. energetic of all at this point and for the first time since 2022 seemed really on it in a Championship Final. Kitamura on the other hand struggled with the heat and looked resigned as far as the victory was concerned. Jeff Campbell seemed to still have a fight in him, but he wasn’t catching anyone either.
For the remaining 30km the question everyone was asking was therefore: can the Nepali duo hold on and who would finish first, or can Onifa and Milton Amat catch them?
In the end, Shrestha proved unbeatable and extended the gap to 15 minutes to win the Asia Trail Master Championship title in a mouth-dropping 7h14. He is the first male Nepali title winner. It’s a victory reminiscent of Arnie Macaneras’ unexpected glory day in 2022, showing that form-of-the-day, preparation and tactical play are key assets in a genuine racing competition. Gopal Tamang made it a 1-2 for Nepal, albeit only just as the amazing Kik Suello arrived just a ten seconds later in third place - his best race result ever. Moreover, Suello for the first time finished ahead of his compatriot and outgoing champion John Ray Onifa. Coming in together with Kitamura for fourth and fifth, it proved Onifa actually had no complete off-day. He did mention his ongoing hip problems bothering him during the race. Milton Amat was next ten minutes later in sixth place, with Sung A Phu, Budha, Quang Tran and Bishal Rai rounding up to the top ten. Campbell suffered in the final stages and had to be content with 11th, ahead of two solid performances by Taichu Yui from Japan and young Indonesian Putra Julio Ekdo Badayu. Japan’s Hiroyuki Matsuda - season 11’s overall points king - finished 14th. The men’s result list showed how stacked the field was with runners such as Wilsen Singgin having to settle for 24th overall (20th male). Interesting anecdote: the men’s winner of the 72km ‘open public’ race finished in a time that would have placed him 26th in the ATM Final.
Sunsari Rokaya is the new ATM female champion after out-sprinting her teenage compatriot Kalpana Budha in a dominant performance by the Nepali duo. The two youngsters were in control running together the entire race. Hong Kong-based Celine Loubiere, who’s also only running for just three years, had strong pace towards the end to snatch a fantastic third place ahead of Japan’s Chisato Kario.
After Rashila Tamang and Priya Rai, Sunsari Rokaya therefore continues the Nepali female domination in ATM since 2023. Five years the senior of teenage sensation Kalpana Budha, 24-year-old Rokaya won MTR 50 in Kathmandu in April and was second - behind Kalpana Budha - in Jumla Rara to get qualified for the Final. As the race unfolded last Saturday, people were wondering what the final kilometer would look like. Rokaya and Budha seemingly get along very well with each other, but as the ATM Championship Final only credits one winner they had to race a bit to make a distinction between them towards the end. Rokaya appeared first with Budha behind her and took the win in 9h32 (18th overall).
Hong Kong-based Parisian Celine Loubiere was coming from behind and nurturing an ankle injury that cost her time at CP 5. Loubiere managed to overtake Chisato Kario and a struggling Rajya Laxmi Rawal to claim third in the final 30km. Not only that, she reduced the gap to the front duo to just about nine minutes! A very promising result for her first season in ATM, in which she a.o. won the 50km race at The 9 Dragons.
Chisato Kario was fourth for Japan, after fifth place last season. A very solid race also by her, just ten minutes behind Loubiere. Nguyen Ngoc Anh kept the home crowd happy with fifth on the podium. In sixth, dropping down from third at CP 5, was third Nepali Rajya Laxmi Rawal, suffering from heavy leg cramps and knee pain. Her sixth place did secure the ATM Team Championship for Nepal. For the second time the country wins the team title, after losing to Japan last season.
The rest of the women’s Top 10 included Hong Kong’s Tsz Kwan Yuen (HKG), first Filipino Angelie Cabalo - who unfortunately did not have her best day -, Colby Chan from Hong Kong and Ang Furba Sherpa , the 100 miles specialist from Nepal, completing her country’s day of success.
