TMBT: Impressive Sheron Sariman beats Milton Amat/Kitamura takes the 100

The 14th edition of Borneo TMBT Ultra near Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, will go into the history books as one of the hottest on record. Views aplenty of the majestic Mount Kinabalu, but many participants on the 100km - in particular - needed to focus more on hydration and staying as cool as possible. Hisashi Kitamura seemed to be cruising to his second consecutive TMBT victoy, but even the tough Japanese elite runner admitted the last 30km were extremely challenging this year. He nevertheless had enough advantage over local Sabahans Oswald Maikol, himself a winner in 2024, and Willy Wilson, who has become a consistent podium contender this season. Kitamura reached the finish line in 13h55, almost one hour head of Maikol. Samry Sainin scored a great fourth place, ahead of Switzerland’s Simon Lattman. Bernardo Linus settled for sixth place.

The home crowd had a lot to cheer about as Lolitah Lintanga won her first ever ATM race and did so at TMBT 100. The youngest competitive runner of the Lintanga sisters was in control of proceedings basically from the start. Harlyn Richard initially kept pace with Lintanga and was probably hoping for an opportunity deeper in the race, but in fact the gap grew a lot towards the end. Another podium for Richard did mean she was assured of qualification for Team Malaysia in next month’s ATM Championship Final, where she can feature alongside Lintanga, too. Third in the race last weekend was Stlea Thomas, ahead of Philippines’ Maria Jocelyn Manalo Tuga and Japan’s Yoshie Kobayashi.

The men’s 50km had a very stacked field and a rather surprising winner at the finish line. Sheron Sariman very much stepped out of the shadow of his famous Sabahan compatriots Milton Amat and Wilsen Singgin by grabbing victory in a fantastic time of 5h46. Earlier this season, Sarimon was third in BUTM. He had been knocking on the door already a few times, but this is a breakthrough performance for him. Milton Amat managed to get second place, albeit 19 minutes later. Nevertheless, Amat still outpaced Vietnam’s Ngo Van Chinh, Japan’s Taichi Yui, Sung A Phu -also Vietnam- and Wilsen Singgin. The difference between Van Chinh and Yui - double race winner in Laos this season - was just over a minute. Van Chinh and Sung A Phu come from Sapa and are part of Hau Ha’s team. Both aim to qualify still for the ATM Championship Final in their home country at Mu Cang Chai Ultra Trail next month.

The women’s 50km saw the top favourite delivering the goods: Angelie Cabalo from Philippines wanted her name on the TMBT winners’ list and she achieved that in great style. Cabalo finished in 8h15. That was half an hour ahead of Singapore’s Zoe Tan, who has a subscription on second places in ATM races this season. For Zoe Tan, TMBT 50 was her third. The battle for third was interesting with long ultra specialist Adelinah Lintanga taking the podium ahead of the surprising Bruneian Ainul Mahmud. Melissa Ellexter did a great job to finish fifth and remains very much in the running for a spot in Team Malaysia next month.

Next weekend we still have another Malaysian Championship Qualifier. This time further south on Borneo island, in Sarawak: Jagoi Ultra. A 70km race that will be the last chance to score points this season.