Three months after his bad tumble in a very wet Korea 50k, Hisashi Kitamura bounced back with his 8th ATM race victory at the very nice Mount Daisetsu Trail Journey event near Asahikawa in Hokkaido, Japan. The UGLOW Asia ace took the bull by the horns despite limited training in the past months and ran away from the field immediately after the flag off at sunrise. Running with a protective cast on his wrist, and stitches on his right eye lid, Kitamura found a course that perfectly matches his trail abilities. Given the dry weather and trail conditions, one could say Mt Daisetsu Trail was the best possible comeback race for him.

The event is a classic in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan, which has seen some of Japan’s best runners over the years, but also because there’s simply few other trail running competitions there. Now under a new management led by Mr Hiroya Genki Kon - himself a fervent runner with ATM experience - Mt Daisetsu Trail has serious ambitions to become a marquee race in Japan and Asia as a whole. This year’s edition certainly hit bull’s eye when one listened to the reviews of the participants. Trung Nguyen even stated that the 3 km long volcano ridge line halfway into the race was ‘the most beautiful trail ever in ATM’ !

As Kitamura was feeling comfortable leading the race at the km 35 checkpoint, another local runner was feeling at ease, too, and even catching the ‘Karate Kit’. Suguru Seo caught him before the 40k mark, which was an impressive feat. The question then was: how does Kitamura react? Plenty of runners’ morale would sink in their shoes at that point, but the 2022 overall ATM points champion is not easily shaken anymore. The duo stayed together until the very last hill in the conclusive section before the finish. Kitamura, with all his race craft collected over the years, attacked and got rid of Seo for the race victory. From a pure competitive point of view, this was a great win by Kitamura, who proved once more that when he is fresh he is very difficult to beat. Suguru Seo obviously was an excellent second just a couple of minutes behind, and we hope to see him again soon on the ATM tour. Third place went to Yuichi Ogawa, who tried to keep up with Kitamura in the first 15 km. Ogawa struggled to reach the finish and salvage his podium. Takaomi Tsubouchi came very close in fourth. The top 5 was filled by Hiroshi Ishikawa. Tomohiro Mizukoshi finished in 8th place after a strong last section, and Singapore’s Trung Nguyen completed the top 10. Trung had had a fantastic start, passing through CP 1 in 4th place, but then went off course. Still, top 10 is a fine result for him and qualification for Team Singapore in the ATM Championship Final beckons once again. For Kitamura, it was the second win of the season after Cuc Phuong 42 and so he now sits at 1000 points.

The women’s race looked like it was going to be an easy win for Sapporo-based Moeko Yasugahira. However, towards the end, the winner of last year’s Seoul 50k was put under pressure by Yukie Kohayase. It explains why Yasugahira looked quite exhausted for a short while as she reached the finish (see video). For her it’s the second points haul of the ATM season, and normally that should give her a spot in Team Japan for the ATM Final once again. Last year she finished 6th on Mt Apo.

8th ATM win for returning Kitamura on Mt Daisetsu