No first victory for double vice-ATM Champion Hisashi Kitamura at Deep Japan Ultra in Niigata last weekend. Despite beating the race course record himself, Kitamura was still no match for the surprisingly fast Terunobu Kurokawa. The 33-year-old completed the tough 80km course in 8h18, still 45 minutes(!) ahead of the ‘Karate Kit’. Kurokawa, a name to remember! In third place, on an island by himself, was Ryoji Sakai in 9h24. Fourth placed Tsukasa Komai reached the finish line in 10h47, so you can tell how outstanding in particular the first two runners were.

The women’s 80km race was tighter and saw Miki Kobayashi take top honours in 12h43, 16 minutes ahead of Japan-based Norwegian Hanah Fjelddahl, a youngster when it comes to competitive trail running at age 28. Third place on the traditional podium was for Miho Wada.

To note was also the race finish of Mario Yap. The Filipino Golden Grandmaster reached another big milestone in his trail running journey by being first ever to Become Legend. Mario Yap completed more than 500 kilometres in at least five countries after becoming 4-star Golden Grandmaster (separate news to follow). Other Grandmasters such as Kenneth Mun Keat Yow (4 stars), Shawn Yong (4 stars), Mohd Nizam Arabi (3 stars), Lim Jyh Hann (3 stars) and Flowrence P. Robert also finished the race successfully.

Deep Japan Ultra also attracts a large number of trail runners for its challenging 100 miles race every year. Also in this category, one man proved too strong for the rest of the victory contenders. Taro Ueda returned to the finish in 29 hours and was 46 minutes ahead of Haruhiko Yoshida. Tatsuya Saguchi and Hideaki Yoshida were three and four. Jason Kwok for Hong Kong was first non-Japanese in sixth place. Also Balinese Yanizar Surydratama finished the tough course in 15th place.

Female winner was Mika Taniguchi in 34h25. That was a solid three hours faster than Miho Uraya in second. Yu Matsushima was third, still beating the 40h mark.

The next Japanese ATM Championship Qualifer is coming up this weekend in Kumamoto, southern Japan. The Minamiaso Caldera Trail, which caters for the 50km specialists.

DJU 80k: Terunobu Kurokawa too fast for Hisashi Kitamura