BTR Bali - Affindi confirms excellent condition

Mohamed Affindi and Vanja Cnops were the great winners of the 2nd edition of the Batur Trail Running Challenge in Bali, Indonesia, last Sunday. For Affindi it was the confirmation of his excellent condition already on display at BUTM in March and his second ATM race victory of the still very young new season. For Vanja Cnops it was the confirmation she can be one of the women-to-beat in this year’s battle for the ATM title.

Trail running in Indonesia still has a number of covid-mitigation protocols to follow, such as a quota on the number of runners permitted to take part in the races, but the presence and participation of Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism in Bali was a wonderful token of support for the event organisers Bali Trail Running. The weather around the famous Batur volcano turned out to be fantastic as well on Sunday morning, so the atmosphere at the event was blissful to say the least. BTR Challenge could become a classic on the ATM trail circuit, indeed, and another welcome piece of evidence trail running does not always need to be about ultra long distances and massive elevation gain profiles.

While the big majority of local Indonesian trail stars decided to sit this race out, it was great to see a new Lombok face fastest out of the start blocks at 6 am. Moh Wisnu Haizufi entered the black lava field first after 2 km, and was able to stay ahead of the Singapore Shufflers trio of road stars Darren Southcott, Malachy Kirwan and Vincent Casanova for a few kilometers. Last year’s winner Thimo Kilberth, German but based in Bali for over ten years, Malaysia’s Mohamed Affindi and first woman Vanja Cnops - Belgian but living in Singapore - were following a short distance further back. Last year’s female winner Emma Payne, predominantly a Bali-based UK triathlete - was showing grit by trying to keep up with Cnops, who just returned from a bronze medal in the Belgian Championship half marathon (1:15:46!). Haizufi would logically slow down a bit, which brought trail newbie Darren Southcott to the front of the race. The terrain in the lava field and low forest is runable and favours the quick legs in the participation field. A little surprisingly perhaps, or just a great tactical sense, Affindi already switched to a higher gear before the crucial ascent of Mount Batur, in pursuit of Southcott. Malachy Kirwan and Thimo Kilberth were three and four respectively.

Climbing and descending Batur, Southcott managed to keep Affindi some 45 seconds behind him in what was developing into a great dual. Kilberth counted on his wealth of trail experience on Batur to try and make his decisive move during the fast but often technical descent. He caught Kirwan, struggling on his Vaporflys, and put himself into a podium position, but the two leaders had run out of range.

Southcott came out of the lava field first to take on the final 2km long uphill road climb to the finish…. and suddenly ran completely out of fuel. Affindi caught him almost immediately and left the Britain standing as he kept running up that hill as if it was flat! Now age 37, the Malaysian winner of Tahura Trail in Bandung 2018 looked stronger than ever. Initially wondering what happened to Southcott himself, Affindi was delighted with his second ATM race victory of the year as he crossed the finish line in a course record time of 2:53. He is now the overall ATM Championshop points leader with 1000 points in the bag, and may already have nearly secured his spot in Team Malaysia - one of the most competitive - for the ATM Final in December.

A visibly exhausted Southcott held on to second place, which by all means is a big achievement in his first real trail race. Thimo was a happy third in 2:59, three minutes faster than last year. Malachy Kirwan took four, ahead of female winner Vanja Cnops, and Vincent Casanova completed the race in sixth overall - also on totally worn out Vaporflys (a pair he was ‘retiring’ anyway). Emma Payne beat her time of last year by 15 minutes to take second, and Elsa Bardin was another newbie on the podium in third place.