Wilsen Singgin and Izzah Hazirah crowned themselves as the 2021 Malaysia Trail Master Champions in the winner-takes-all 84km long race at the Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival (MMTF) in Taiping. The event was the first major mass participation trail event in the country in more than 20 months, and saw 1500 participants follow a strict safety protocol to finally be able to enjoy a proper trail running competition again.

While Izzah Hazirah ran solo in the lead for nearly the entire race, Wilsen Singgin had to deal with his fellow-Sabahan Daved Simpat. A winner of this race in 2018, Simpat wanted to reconnect with his old form after injury hampered him considerably in 2019. However, Simpat is no longer the youngest of elite runners and Singgin was ready to fight after his surge to the top of the ATM scene was interrupted by covid. Indeed, Singgin was the hottest newcomer two seasons ago and even a 230k race winner at Ultra Trail Chiang Rai in Thailand. As runners took off at 6 am, Simpat immediately set the pace and, as usual, was in no mood to wait for anyone. Singgin hung on, Hisashi KItamura tried but could not. The KL-based Japanese vice-Asia Trail Master champion in 2019 already said at RPC on Friday that all the covid-related uncertainties and lack of races meant he is not yet in peak form. Joining in the mix up front were Akmal Adzmi and Yusof Eskandar, and initially also 2017 ATM champion Steven Ong.

Coming down from Maxwell Hill, the toughest section of the race course, just over half way distance, Singgin decided to up the ante and dropped SImpat by a few minutes. It turned out to be the decisive gap, as Singgin built further on it on the ensuing second ascent. Simpat realised his younger adversary was too fast and let go. At the finish, the gap had grown to about 40 minutes. In fact, Simpat only had 5 minutes advantage left over Akmal Adzmi and Kitamura, the latter battling hard to get that third podium spot. However, all the good things that were said about Adzmi’s current form before the race turned out be hundred percent true. Adzmi held on by some 40 seconds and grabbed his first ATM race podium spot! Sazuziam Bin Zakaria completed the men’s top five.

Wilsen Singgin’s finishing time was 10:59:46, which is impressive. While slower than Kristian Joergensen, race dominator in 2019, it was 13 minutes faster than then-second placed Alessandro Sherpa. Admittedly, this year’s race course was almost 5 km shorter, but the conditions last weekend were much wetter.

In the women’s race, Adelinah Lintanga tried to catch up with Izzah Hazirah for a while and limited the damage, until it became clear it was to no avail. Lintanga remained strong to grab second place ahead of the surprising Celeste Teo. Ultra road specialist Chong Mei Tze took fourth and Lynn Law fifth.

It was Hazirah’s second victory at MMTF after 2018. Her finishing time was one hour faster than when she finished 4th in 2019… proving she has not been sitting around during the pandemic.

Watch our video footage of the MMTF event on our facebook and YouTube channels.

MMTF - Wilsen Singgin & Izzah Hazirah are the Malaysian Trail Master Champions