VMM: Sensational Hau Ha beats all the men on 100K
A sensational Hau Ha (Hà Thị Hậu) beat all the men in the 100km race of her home race Vietnam Mountain Marathon at the Topas Ecolodge in Sapa. The 33-year-old wonder woman came back and dropped the first man in the race, Gaetan Morizur, in the last 6 km to finish line. Hau Ha had been amazingly confident from the beginning, but had a weak moment on the longest hillclimb of the race. Morizur put on the pressure and gained an advantage of over 20 minutes. But in a great show of mental strength, Hau Ha found her second breath in the descent afterwards and began chasing the Frenchman down. Morizur and Hau Ha know each other already from Dalat Ultra Trail in March, a 70k race where the man still had the clear upperhand over the woman. Last weekend, however, she astonished him and everyone else by returning to the front and immediately pressing forward. A definitive move that led to victory: a first in the history of the ATM Championship series. At Topas, the gap was 20 minutes for a finishing time of 15h15. The Vietnamese single mum delivered a show and performance reminiscent of Veronika Vadovicova in a couple of races in 2019, notably VJM against Hisashi Kitamura. It is her second ATM race victory of the season after Dalat, but certainly VMM is her breakthrough moment on the Asian scene. Hau Ha only started to take running seriously in 2020 in an attempt to lose weight and gain fitness while business slowed down due to covid 19.. We certainly have not yet seen the best of her. Despite her efforts to win the race overall, she looked fresh and anything but exhausted at the finish and the hours afterwards. In two weeks she will be competing at the next Vietnamese ATM race, Mu Cang Chai Trail 50 and her big goal is to win the Asia Trail Master Championship decider on Mount Apo in Philippines on 17 December.
Gaetan Morizur had nothing but respect for Hau Ha, and despite a psychological defeat went home as the winner of the men’s race - his second of the ATM season as well. It was a strong showing by all accounts, too, because the men’s field was competitive last weekend with several ATM race winners and podium placers at the starting line. Philippines’ coming man Larry Apolinario not in the least. The impressive winner of MUSPO 100 last July actually was running together with Morizur and Hau Hau until the halfway point. Sadly, Apolinario’s stomach began to rebel and he had to stop up to five times to throw up. Weakened and unable to digest anything decent afterwards, Apolinario was compelled to reduce his running pace and actually restored to fast hiking most of the second part of the race. Such was the leader’s early pace, however, that Apolinario still had enough time advantage to reach the finish line in 8th place. In so doing, he collected still a solid 330 points for his ATM Championship ranking, putting him on 830 total points. At present, that gives him some breathing space to qualify as one of five male runners for Team Philippines at the ATM Final in December.
The battle for second place in the men’s race was contested between Tomohiro Mizukoshi, Nhon Trong and Italy’s Lorenzo Revelant. Mizukoshi battled hard as always, and looked much stronger than in 2019 when he finished 6th in VMM, but Vietnam’s Nhon Trong found a last burst of energy to claim his best race result ever over the ultra distance.
In the women’s 100k, Nguyen Thuy Dung was a very good second, despite suffering an injury towards the end. She was comfortably in the top 10 overall for most of the race. Canada’s Rachelle Komarnisky completed the podium with third.
There was also an inaugural 100 miles race on the VMM programme last weekend. The timing of the race was perhaps a bit unfortunate, as male winner Quang Tran and second-placed Hung Hai delivered fantastic performances and a racing spectacle that went largely unnoticed due to finishing in the middle of the night. After a 4am start the previous day in pouring rain, Hung Hai had been in command for half of the race during the four initial loops that were introduced as a result of the poor weather making the trail conditions of the original route too dangerous. Afterwards, Quang Tran - winner of Mantra Summits Challenge in Indonesia two months ago - shifted to a higher gear. He caught Hung Hai with 35km to go and went on ahead by himself. Back at Topas just after 3am , he had an advantage of over one-and-a-half hours to Hung Hai. Tran’s race time was a superb 23 hours and 19 minutes for 162 km and over 7000 elevation on wet and slippery trails. In third place, as expected, was Nguyen Si Hieu in 27h53: his third ATM podium of the season. Lanh Le was fourth in 29h32 and Jean-Henri Haquenaut finished strongly to claim fifth half an hour later.
The women’s miler was a contest between Nguyen Phuong and Phuong Vy Le, after Filipino runner Emily Raga slowed down somewhat towards the middle of the race. Phuong Vy Le caught Nguyen Phuong halfway through, but apparently it cost her too much effort to keep up the same pace and Nguyen Phuong again went solo in the lead. Enough for the victory in 35h37. Phuong Vy Le was second two-and-a-half hours later, and Danang’s Le Xuan Suong still managed to overtake Emily Raga for the final podium spot.
Gaetan Morizur was putting pressure on Hau Ha on the long hillclimb, but the local young woman came back
Quang Tran was equally superb in the 100 miles race, but his performance got ‘snowed under’ by his 3 am finishing hour and Hau Ha’s stunt on the 100km .
Nguyen Phuong was in command of the women’s 100 miles race from early on and withstood the pressure from Phuong Vy Le halfway through the race