The 3rd edition of MUSPO 100 in Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines, saw an absolutely dominant performance by new T8 recruit John Ray Onifa, who opened his 2023 ATM account with his 6th career race victory in our series. His winning time was 11h46. So far, Onifa has never had a focus on winning the championship, but that may change this season. His victory last weekend in was a reminder how strong he can be, leading from start to finish and never looking back. Local star Yoyong Sacayle, himself in good form over the past months, understood the realities and settled for his own pace, which was in itself fast enough for a rather comfortable second place. For Sacayle it was already his third podium this year after Santa Ines in Luzon and Cuc Phuong in Vietnam. Several other Filipinos delivered solid performances at MUSPO. Roberto Cain stepped up to score a third place on the podium. Behind him, Simeon Mesias and Bernie Bauyot took four and five, ahead of fresh Grandmaster Sean Aying, who may still have felt Mantra 116 in his legs. Nevertheless, Aying now tops the overall ATM championship ranking with his fourth Top 10 of the season. His objective will now be to eliminate his rank 10 from Sierra Madre, by doing a better result in his fifth ATM race later this year. His points total of 1435 is also important for the other Filipinos aiming to get into the national country team for the ATM Finals, especially those not planning to complete four races.

The women’s 100km developed into a competition between pre-race favourite Julie Ann Morales and Mary Joy Sumanda. Both ran together most of the day and decided to wait until the last kilometers to determine the outcome. Morales, fifth in last year’s ATM Final as a newbie, turned out to have the fastest dash to the line and took her second ATM race win after The Punisher a year ago. The duo completed the distance just under 20 hours. A bit later, Shekina Velasquez completed the podium ahead of the returning Manilyn Mamugay and Metzi Joy Alson. For Sumanda and Velasquez, the great results add to their points totals this season in what promises to become a tight competition for the five spots in Team Pilipinas for the ATM Finals.

Julie Ann Morales and Mary Joy Sumanda ran together most of the day and sprinted it out at the end

Yoyong Sacayle scored his third podium of the ATM season but Onifa was clearly too fast

Great third place on the podium for Roberto Cain

Shekina Velasquez took third place on the podium - her first!

6th place for new overall ATM points leader Sean Aying, who already bagged his 4th result of the season

It’s a blockbuster weekend in ATM this weekend with no fewer than three points race events counting for the championship rankings. A mixture of circumstances led to this situation, in a way illustrating it remains very difficult to plan medium to long term in trail running. MUSPO Bukidnon 100 in Mindanao, Philippines, will be the first race to start on Saturday evening and is therefore featured first in our news reel. It’s the second time MUSPO is on our championship calendar after the very wet edition last year, which was unfortunately overshadowed by the bad fall of female favourite Sherlyn Fugaban, who fractured her thigh badly a few hours into the race. Fugaban today is doing well, the rehabilitation ongoing while it of course remains uncertain when or if she will return to competitive trail racing. Aggy Sabanal made a successful comeback to ATM in the same race, while Larry Apolinario looked impressive in the men’s after Macaneras threw in the towel after both of them had gotten off route for a significant amount of time. None of these Filipino star runners will be in the race this weekend and, instead, eyes will be focused on John Ray Onifa. Originally from the nearby Visayas, Onifa will be gunning for his 6th ATM race victory and the first of what he hopes to be several this season. His main competitor on paper seem to be Yoyong Sacayle, already twice on the podium this season, and Sean Aying, who just scored 3rd in Mantra 116. In the women’s race, Julie Ann Morales could be the one to beat in her first ATM appearance of 2023. Morales was one of the female newcomers on the scene, winning The Punisher, and scoring a solid 5th place in the ATM Championship Final. on Mt Apo. A year ago, she finished right behind Cecille Wael in third place at MUSPO. Other podium candidates are Manilyn Mamuguay - coming back to ATM after a few years off - , Shekina Velasquez, Mary Joy Sumanda and Rhea Batac.

We will be reporting from Bukidnon this weekend on our usual channels.

John Ray Onifa returns to the ATM scene this weekend, aiming for his 6th race win throughout the years

Julie Ann Morales won the Punisher last year. Can she add MUSPO 100 to her collection of race wins?

Two podiums so far in ATM 2023 for Yoyong Sacayle! How does he fare against Onifa at MUSPO 100?

Following last week’s announcement about the unfortunate cancellation of Mt Hamiguitan Trail, we are happy to announce that MUSPO Bukidnon Ultra 100 will be a great replacement on 22/23 July. The Filipino event is well-known in ATM, as it was already part of the Championship series last year. Given that the event is also taking place in Mindanao, it was logical to use its reserve status and promote it to the 2023 ATM Championship calendar. Please note that only the 100km race will offer points for the Championship ranking and the Grandmaster Quest.

MUSPO 100 is normally quite a runable ultra, but unexpected heavy rainfall turned the trails into a tricky mudfest last year. Larry Apolinario and Aggy Sabanal were the winners, but the event was overshadowed by Sherlyn Fugaban’s disasterous stumble at night, in which she sustained an open leg fracture. Fugaban, who had just become the number one female trail runner in her country, is still in recovery today.

This year’s 100km course will be modified quite a bit to also include a new hillclimb that leads to a ‘sea of clouds’. Total elevation gain is estimated at 4000hm. The preliminary (!) GPX can be checked below. The event takes place in Valencia, Bukidnon, which is roughly located between Mindanao’s best-known cities Davao and Cagayan de Oro. You can fly to either airport and continue by bus from there. The event is supported by the local authorities to boost tourism in Bukidnon.

Registration is opening this week.

Rewatch Tale of the Trail - MUSPO 2022

You can now watch the latest Tale of the Trail race recap video on last weekend’s MUSPO Ultra 100, the first points race of the 2022 Asia Trail Master season. The event had a lot of drama. Two hours into the 100k race, the skies opened and rain was pouring down on the runners for over four hours straight. The usually very runable trails turned into a mudpool, and the whole race suddenly became a lot more technical than anybody had thought. Early race leaders Larry Apolinario and Arnie Macaneras missed a marker at a critical junction and went off course on two separate occasions for a very long time. For Macaneras it was a reason to throw in the towel, for Apolinario, apparently, a motivation to get back to the race lead as soon as possible and win the thing. His first ATM points race victory after a second place in Akyathlon 2019 behind Elmer Retolado, the man he beat last May in the ATM Candidate Race in Sierra Madre… Apolinario could become a dangerman for this year’s ATM Championship battle that will unfold in his home country the Philippines on 17 December and the Mount Apo Sky Race.

Aggy Sabanal returned to the ATM Championship series after maternity leave and won the women’s race convincingly ahead of Ces Wael. The women’s race -and the event in general- was overshadowed by a nasty fall suffered by co-race favourite Sherlyn Fugaban - this year winner of the two ATM Candidate Races Santa Ines and Sierra Madre. Fugaban had to be evacuated and hospitalised with a right thigh fracture that will take many months to heal.

A very nasty fall at night by women’s top favourite Sherlyn Fugaban cast a shadow over some otherwise fantastic performances by filipino runners at the MUSPO Ultra 100 in Valencia, Bukidnon, on the island of Mindanao. Just before midnight, Fugaban - winner this season of, a.o, the ATM Candidate Races Santa Ines Adventure Run and Sierra Madre Ultra in the Rizal mountains - slid on a wet and muddy downhill trail and tripped over a large tree root. Her coming down could not be worse and resulted in an upper leg fracture. Fugaban had to be evacuated from the scene, which turned out to be complicated, and was hospitalised where she is now waiting for surgery. All things considered, Fugaban was in a positive mood on Sunday afternoon, even though she realises this will take many many months, if not longer, to recover from. A surgery procedure such as this also requires a substantial amount of money, unfortunately. Her team is therefore kindly asking for donations. You can find details here below or on our facebook page.

It was almost six hours into the race when the freak accident happened, and Fugaban was in the lead together with Aggy Sabanal. The latter would run on to win the race in over 21 hours, which indicated how extremely tough the heavy rainfall made the trail course after the start at 6pm in the evening. Ces Wael was pushing Sabanal for most of the race, but had to settle for second just four minutes ahead of Julie Ann Morales.

The men’s race was dominated by Arnie Macaneras and Larry Apolinario until sunrise, when the duo missed a critical marker and went off course for a very long time. When after an hour they finally got back on the right trail, runners such as Sean Anying and Yoyong Sacayle had already passed. Larry Apolinario decided to chase them down and did so in remarkably fast fashion. For Macaneras it was a bit too much, and he decided to take it easy. He would later DNF and score no important ATM Championship points…

Larry Apolinario steamed to victory in 17h29 and raises his profile as an ATM protagonist. It was his first ever ATM points race victory after a second place in Akyathlon 2019. This year, Apolinario had already won the Sierra Made Trail Ultra 75 in May. Many runners showed great form in this race. Sean Anying had his best ATM result ever with a second place, just ahead of Freddie Blanco.

Sherlyn Fugaban: her ATM Championship ambitions will unfortunately need to be postponed.

Larry Apolinario proved he is a class act by winning MUSPO 100 even after losing an hour by going off-course

Aggy Sabanal is back to the scene and scores her first ATM race win since 2018!

Sean Anying, Freddie Blanco, Ryan Estreras and Yojong Sacayle were runners 2-5 in the ranking

This weekend we have the first Filipino points race in the 2022 Asia Trail Master Championship series, and it’s a newcomer as well: MUSPO Ultra in Bukidnon, Mindanao. On the programme of the event’s 3rd edition - the first since covid - are several race categories but ATM contenders and Grandmaster Quest seekers will focus on the 100 kilometres race that starts at 6 p.m. on Saturday. That essentially means it’s going to be predominantly a night race for most runners. Among the favourites we wind Arnie Macaneras and Sherlyn Fugaban in the women’s.

Bukidnon is the region between Cagayan de Oro and Davao on the large southern island of the Philippines. The area around Valencia City may not be as mountainous as the others, but the steep gradients of the hills and treacherous ground conditions (could be really muddy if there’s some heavy rain) will make this 100k challenging. Among the highlights are the touristic attractions Lake Apo and Musuan Peak, along with Sagumata Falls.

Arnie Macaneras was the coming man in southern Philippines before covid-19 halted everything. Macaneras was a surprise 2nd behind Kitamura but before John Ellis in the 2019 The Punisher race, and backed that up with another 2nd place at UTKC in Thailand - ahead of Kitamura - in February 2020. On paper, he will thus be the man to beat in Valencia this weekend, but how much has the corona crisis affected his performance level? We already know that Larry Apolinario from Antique is back at his best, courtesy of his great race victory in the ATM Candidate Sierra Madre Trail Ultra at the end of May. Apolinario could be Macaneras’ main challenger. Also on the start list is former Mt Apo race winner Ronie Torlao. Slightly older than the other two, but reportedly still going fast - also on less technical terrain. Other podium hopefuls will be Grandmaster 2 stars Aleksis Capili, Joeffery Camara, Al Telias and Hover Luis. And who knows we get suprised by a new face.

In the women’s we can expect a battle between three well-known ATM protagonists. Sherlyn Fugaban is the new lady on the block, having won both ATM Candidate Races in the Rizal this spring. Less experienced over 100k, Fugaban will need to watch out for the very experienced Cecile Wael and the 2018 ATM Championship runner-up Aggy Sabanal. The latter returned to trail action earlier in the year after giving birth. Fresh Grandmaster Rhea Baltac is also on the start list, along with Janet Halcon.

We will be covering the race live on our usual channels, and we have live tracking of the lead runners again, too. Link is below.

Arnie Macaneras

Cecile Wael

After a successful edition as a Candidate Race last July, we are happy to announce that Muspo Ultra 50 will be a new points race for the Asia Trail Master Championship and Grandmaster Quest in the southern Philippines in 2020! Muspo Ultra 50 features a 80km race (50 miles) to focus on - in the context of ATM - and is scheduled for 18-19 July.

Organised by a well-experienced group in Bukidnon, Mindanao, Muspo takes you the hilly terrains of Mount Musuan of Maramag and around the majestic Lake Apo of Valencia. With about 650 meters of elevation, Musuan Peak gives you a panoramic view of the province. Lake Apo gives you a mystical feel of nature with the lake and nearby mountain ranges.

The event offers 3 more distances: a 50-kilometer distance for experienced runners and a 30-kilometer distance that’s friendly for novice and newbie runners and a 10k. Note that only the 80km race matters for the Asia Trail Master points.

The trails are quite fast and runable with some portions that are technically challenging, which matches the profile of main sponsor Hoka One One’s shoes being a fast racer and still have aggressive lugs to keep you safe on technical surfaces. Total elevation gain for the 80km is around the 3800 hm mark.

MUSPO ULTRA 50 is not only a run but it’s a haven to connect with nature and marvel at its beauty. Now is the #timetofly at Muspo!

Registration Start: 20 December 2019.

Connect to the Muspo Ultra 50 facebook page to stay up to date with latest developments