It’s been tradition for a decade already: in June we hit the trails in the Niigata countryside of Japan! Local resident and trail running star Hiroaki Matsunaga enjoys seeing people from all over Japan and the rest of Asia coming to his mountain neighbourhood northwest of Tokyo and north of the Japan Alps. This year’s Deep Japan Ultra once again sees a large start list, both in quantity and quality, for the 100 Miles and 80km races - both qualifiers for the ATM Championship points ranking and for each individual runner’s Grandmaster Quest. The race courses are considered among the toughest challenges in Japan.

That is also due to the variable weather conditions. This weekend it promises to be rather warm, but deep in the mountanous area it will cool down considerably at night. Hisashi Kitamura will be trying to add a win in DJU 80km on his record. Last year, he was leading the race until he got off course and had to settle for third place. The Karate Kit has been in great shape again earlier this year in Japan and certainly ranks amongst the top contenders this weekend. His main rivals ought to be Terunobu Kurokawa and Ryoji Sakai.

In the female 80km we have Chizuru Ofuchi and Japan-based Hannah Fjelddahl, but also some solid contenders from Thailand.

The 100 miles of Deep Japan Ultra has proven to be quite unpredictable over the years. A relatively long list of local Japanese contenders, including Kazuyuki Takahashi, Ryota Nakatani and Taro Ueda will be going for victory, but there’s a very decent non-Japanese contigent this year of very experienced ultra runners who can throw themselves in the mix for at least podium. Thailand’ Santi Phongsraphang, for example, has been in great shape this year in a few ATM races already. Also his compatriot Somchai Chaosakorn has proven credentials on the long ultra in Southeast Asia. Yeung Ka Lun and Jason Kwok are just two runners of a Hong Kong group and Bali’s Yanizar Suryadratama also knows the ropes of 100 miles racing.

The women’s 100 miles sees one member of the ATM Team Champions - Japan - in the race, i.e. Yasuyo Hotta. She will face Sachiko Tokoro and Mika Taniguchi and the Filipino Avegail Depanay.

Deep Japan Ultra with Hisashi Kitamura and Yasuyo Hotta