For the third time in the current ATM Championship season, Japan’s Hiroyuki Matsuda emerged victorious at the finish of a long ultra. Also in Mantra 116 in Indonesia last weekend, he proved strongest and as a result is now the overall leader in the points ranking of Season XI and guaranteed of a spot in Team Japan for the upcoming Championship Final at Mu Cang Chai Ultra Trail in Vietnam on 3 October. In the women’s 116km we saw Singapore’s Dening Lo taking an emotional victory in a new female course record.

With a start at midnight, the Mantra 116km and 68km runners climed up Mount Welirang with the summit at well over 3000m at nighttime. It was the 10-year-anniversary of the event in Malang, East Java, and over 3000 runners turned up for, albeit mostly for the shorter distance categories, of course. Both the 116km and 68km races have been ATM Championship Qualifiers for many years and rated amongst the toughest and most technical mountain trails on our calendar.

Last year’s 116k race winner Yuta Matsuyama initially was able to keep pace with Hiroyuki Matsuda, but late in the race had to let him go. Matsuda won in 19h58 - a very solid time. Matsuyama saw himself still get overaken by Indonesian Galih Candra at the very end for second place: 21h30 vs 21h41. Daniel Ortiz, Colombian but living in Indonesia, took a great fourth place in 22h42 ahead of Andreas Susanto in 23h07. Former race winner Rachmat Septiyanto had to settle for 13th place this year, showing that not every year is the same.

Dening Lo had won the 68km race the past two years and decided last-minute to give the 116km a try. Much has to do with the fact that the number 3 of the latest ATM Championship Final in Hong Kong is relocating to Europe next month. In the lead from the beginning, Dening Lo nevertheless struggled after twisting her ankle badly in the rocky descent of Welirang. Managing her pace well, the Singaporean stayed out of further trouble and made it to the finish in 10th place overall and a time of 24h52 - a new female course record. Quite an accomplishment, it was even her first ever 100k race. In second place was last year’s winner from Japan, Chizuru Inoue in 28h45 - so the gap was enormous. Former winner from Jakarta, Sianti Candra completed the podium in third place in 30h16 after a great final part of her race. Restu Aeni and Novita Wulandari were four and five.

On the men’s 68km, Risqi Kurniawan bounced back from a more quiet and difficult running period by taking yet another win in Mantra. He finished half an hour ahead of Singapore-based Philippe Daniel in 11h50. Bagus Prastyo was third. The women’s 68km had a surprising race winner in Indonesia’s rising talent Pujas Rani Ratu Haj in 14h30. She was in the lead from early on, and not pre-race favourite Ritzy Amor. After the race, it turned out Ritzy had been struggling with flu for a few days and just had no strength to compete. She nevertheless finished the race, in sixth, and became an official ATM Grandmaster. Still, the pace by Pujas Rani was fast she would have given an in-form Ritzy Amor a good challenge for the win. Second place went to SIngapore’s Zoe Tan, who was also second in UTSG 60 last month. Zoe’s time was 16h10. In third, we had Nur Azarine Putri Yasmin from Indonesia in 16h38.

Mantra: Matsuda and Dening Lo prove their race favourite status