VMM - Quang Tran wins 100K while surprising Trung Dang Nguyen claims ATM Championship lead

Among all the contenders for this weekend’s men’s Vietnam Mountain Marathon, Hung Hai was still the man to beat in the minds of many. Not only did he win the 100k race in 2018 and 2019, he had been training and preparing for a hattrick on the same trails around Sapa for two weeks. With already a victory in Dalat Ultra Trail 100 on his record from last June, Hung Hai looked set to conquer the lead in the Asia Trail Master Championship ranking as well. Alas, an ultra race always needs to be run.

2017 VMM Champion Quang Tran wasted no time in the early parts after the start on Friday night. Hung Hai was able to hang on, the other race favourites such as Romain Berion - winner of VJM 70 last month -, ATM Championship leader Gaetan Morizur, youngster Nhon Trong and Quang Duc Nguyen were a bit further behind. Quang Tran applied a lot of pressure in the nighttime and suddenly he was reported being in the lead by himself. Later it would turn out that Hung Hai injured himself quite badly and was forced to quit the race. What should have been a great success story turned into a bitter disappointment for the professional multisport athlete.

Quang Tran increased the gap to his rivals behind, but towards the end of the race he started to stuffer as well. As the Vietnamese hero struggled in the final kilometres uphill to the Topas Lodge, Frenchmen Berion and Morizur edged closer and closer to him. Eventually, Quang Tran made it only just, and in a new course record of 13h01. Romain Berion and Gaetan Morizur came in together as second and third place, only 3 minutes behind. Fifty-four minutes later, Nhon Trong came in fourth just ahead of Nguyen Si Hieu, who has become a regular name at the top of result sheets as well this year. Germany’s Markus Gnirck was a very solid sixth another ten minutes later, and keeps improving performance-wise as well. Those six were clearly separate from the rest of the field, led by Phi Lanh Le in seventh. Quang Tran collects a very useful 550 ATM Championship points with his victory, as VMM is this year’s Vietnam SuperTrail with 50 bonus points. It would be awesome if he could keep this form on at least four more occasions in 2021!

With Hung Hai not finishing, and Gaetan Morizur boosting his total ATM points tally to 925 by taking 500 for second place in VMM as opposed to the 450 in VJM last month (see regulations for retaining just one of those two points results), the French newcomer in competitive Asian trail running looked safe to carry his Championship lead into the new year. But then, Trung Dang Nguyen suddenly emerged as winner of the VMM 70km B-race, a Grandmaster race distance so there’s some Championship points to be scored as well! That’s an unexpected 420 extra points for the Vietnamese runner who is normally residing in Singapore… and that propels him to a total tally of 1015 points moving ahead of Morizur in the ranking! Before the race, Trung Dang Nguyen had been playing down his chances for a good result, saying he had hardly done any running training at all in the past two months. A textbook trick of course, but be that as it may, he saw a chance and took it. After scoring points in EcoTrail Al Ula back in early February before the pandemic, he scored also in Dalat and put the cherry-on-the-pie in Sapa.

The women’s VMM 100km race was won by ATM Championship leader Julia Duong Nguyen Thi in 17h20. It was third time lucky for “Little Sugar” after finishing second and third in previous participations in Sapa. It is also her third career win in an ATM poins race. She can look forward to 2021 with great confidence! France’s Nathalie Cochet, herself a former winner at VMM, was second and put up a good battle with Julia. Cochet arrived back at Topas just a good fifteen minutes later. Third place on the podium went to Trà My Cung Thị in 20h04.

We did not get a repeat dual between Duong Nguyen Thi and Thuỳ Dung Nguyễn after last month’s VJM race, as the latter opted for VMM 70km. However, Thuỳ Dung Nguyễn showed once more in what excellent running form she currently is by winning that race in 11:03:28, and significantly, 47 minutes ahead of France’s Constance Louasse! If the newcomer on the ATM Championship scene continues to develop at this rate, she could be a second Vietnamese iron in the fire for the title next year! Third place on the 70K went to Lan Hương Vũ, who also did well by coming in just five minutes behind Louasse.

Note: The 2020 ATM Championship was merged with the 2021 Championship already back in August as a result of the global covid 19 pandemic.