Amor, Chapman and Amin steal the show on tough new Gombak course

The 5th edition of Trail des Gombak in Selangor, Malaysia, not only featured a new race venue at the MPS Stadium, but also a completely redesigned trail route. That new course turned out to be a lot tougher than the previous one, to the surprise of many repeat participants. The heavy thunderstorm the afternoon before the 2am start and another one on Saturday afternoon made sure the technicality of some jungle sections skyrocketed to the extent that sliding your way down the slopes on all fours was the only way to go. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but at the same the beloved kind of trail experience for others. Ritzy Amor loved it and was therefore an undisturbed repeat winner of the Gombak 50k race. The KL-based Filipino, who finished 6th in the latest ATM Championship Final at the 9 Dragons in Hong Kong, shows no signs of overtraining as she continues to combine long distance running with other sports activities. In the lead from start to finish on Saturday, and finishing 10th overall in 8h23. Japan’s Akane Nemoto had to settle for second just like last year, and that was also the maximum she could hope for. Nemoto actually had a solid performance herself, given she also gave other runners such as Ryehana Rajap (2nd in BUTM 50 in April) , Chong Mei Tze and Siao Ai Lim no chance to challenge her for second place.

The men’s 50km - actually 47km - also delivered a clear winner in Kristjan Chapman, from Iceland but living in Kuala Lumpur, too. Having learnt from his dehydration at UTSG, where he lost a podium in the last 10km of the race, Chapman did not get over-excited when China’s Wang Xiang took off like a bullet in the early road section of the race before they hit the first uphill climb. Chapman then reeled him in quite quickly on the technical and muddy parts, closely followed by strong Indonesian Fahmil Mamel, who made his international debut at TDG. malaysian runners Syahmim Nazmy and Amuniddin Musa kept themselves within range for a long time, but never caught the two front runners in the end. Chapman, knowing the second part of the course very well, extended the gap to Mamel for his first win in ATM in a time of 6h38. Mamel, from North Sumatra, scored second in7h02. Nazmy third in 7h26. Behind Musa in fourth, it was good to see Amir Zaki again in fifth. Zaki is returning to competitive trail running after a 2-year break.

The 100km race, actually 95km, consisted of two loops of the 47km route. A genuine challenge that saw most of the +100 participants DNF, eventually. Up front, it was Amierul Amin, who led more or less from start to finish. The Malaysian runner was never really comfortable, however, as Indonesian Ma’Mun Khariri, a former Mantra 116 winner, and new name Feliks Aten from Sabah kept the gap smallish until the last couple of hours. Amin finishing time of 17h31 indicates what a tough course Gombak has become. Amin was an ATM Finalist in 2023, but this was his first ever race victory in our series.

Amazingly, Ma’Mun Khariri still got much closer to Amin. He finished only 10 minutes later, after cutting his deficit in half during the last 7km of the race. Nice detail: Khariri just got released from 6 days hospital a week ago following a poisonous snake bite… It’s his second great race result in an ATM Qualifier this season, so his chances for championship qualification are high, indeed. Feliks Aten took third place. He was in the mix for podium throughout and only had to drop his pace towards the end of the race. His podium spot is well-deserved. Ibrahim Karim still put pressure on Aten’s podium spot as he crossed the line just a few minutes later. Amir Saipol Bahri was fifth.

The women’s 100 km saw Grandmaster Celeste Teo and Ang Yee Mei running together the whole day. They jointly returned to the stadium in 24h41. For Ang Yee Mei it was the second podium in a row, she also came second in BTR Ultra in Bali last month. In third place was Vietnam’s Nguyen Ngoc Phuong in 29h12. In her come back from injury, Japanese runner Tamae Harada claimed fourth place ahead of Chan Chin Chin.

The next ATM Championship Qualifier in Malaysia is KAR Ultra in Sabah at the end of next month. The next event of Projek Hijo is Trail des Lenggeng at the end of November, a new entry on our Grandmaster Quest calendar.