For the first time since 2018, next year Brunei features again on the ATM Championship calendar with the Simpur Ultra Run on the weekend of 8/9 June. The 54 km long points race was a tough and exciting Candidate Race this season. Start and finish is in the capital city of BSB, Bandar Seri Begawan, which is a great bonus in terms of logistical planning for those planning to attend the event. The exact host venue is Dermaga Diraja.

The cut-off time for the 54k is set at 20 hours and there’s six aid stations and checkpoints planned between start and finish. As can be seen on the course profile below, trail running in Brunei means a lot of steep up & down hills that make it harder than it looks on paper.

Registration is already open and can be accessed via the button link below. Runners with less ambition can also choose for one of the shorter race categories, such as the 30k or the 8k and fun run.

Chun Kwei Ming was the great winner of last weekend’s Simpur Ultra 50, as pre-race favourite Sefli Ahar pulled out just over halfway following an injury sustained in a fall early on in the race. Just like the earlier BBTC event in 2016-2018, Brunei’s trails once again proved to be very treacherous despite what some would call a lack of elevation gain. The forest trails around the city of Bandar Seri Begawan are very technical and slow even the quickest runners down so much that we had a very solid and proven competitor as Chun Kwei Fung winning in just over 10 hours for 50k. It’s easy to deduct his average speed. The local Bruneian was 6th in Borneo TMBT 100 in 2019, for instance. He was one -and-a-half hours ahead of 2nd placed Haji Ibni Bin Haji Nudin, and over three hours ahead of Junaidi in third place.

Nur Ainulhakimah Mahmud was the fastest woman in the race in a time of 15:44:12, after a long and exciting competition with Norazimah Mohd Zin, who ultimately finished just six minutes later in second. Tellingly, only two women managed to beat the cut-off time. Overall, Simpur Ultra was clearly a killer, with just 23% of the starters in the finish.

Despite these dramatic numbers, people agreed the event has a bright future ahead and with some fine-tuning can become a Bruneian classic.

Video footage of race finish and interviews by Mark TWT for ATM

This weekend our attention finally again turns to Brunei, where on Sunday the inaugural edition of Simpur Ultra Run will take place - a new ATM Candidate Race. It’s been five years since the demise of the Beach Bunch Trail Challenge, and we are looking forward to getting to know many new runners. Covid mitigation efforts made it very hard still for Bruneian trail runners to travel and race in 2022, but things are looking good for the new season. And who else but local running legend Sefli Ahar features as the posterboy of the new event in and around the country capital Bandar Seri Begawan.

On the event programme we find a 50km main category and a 18km shorter distance. Sefli Ahar will go for the 50km that starts at midnight on Sunday, and which will be reported live on on our usual ATM channels. For those who may have forgotten, Sefli Ahar is a 6-time ATM points race winner in the early years 2016-2018, which is still a record for male trail runners he shares with John Ellis, Hisashi Kitamura and Milton Amat. Working as a police officer in Brunei, traveling abroad is not that easy and Sefli, now in his mid forties, has taken a step back from international competition in ATM since then. However, this weekend he is at home in BSB and anyone aiming to win the race will certainly need to run passed him.

Sefli Ahar has won 6 ATM points races between 2016 and 2018, a record he shares with John Ellis, Hisashi Kitamura and Milton Amat.

We are happy to announce a new ATM Candidate in Brunei Darussalam on the weekend of 25/26 February 2023: Simpur Ultra Run. It will be the first ATM promoted race in the country since 2018’s Beach Bunch Trail Challenge, and a great opportunity to put the spotlights on the traditionally strong Bruneian trail running community. Simpur Ultra Run will take place in the nation’s capital city Bandar Seri Begawan and has a 50k course as the main race category. Total elevation gain will be around the 3000 hm mark, which is not nothing for a 50k and those who remember Beach Bunch know that the hills in Brunei are of the short but steep kind.

Flag off time will be midnight on the 26th, meaning the competitive and faster runners will be mostly running in cooler temperatures at nighttime.

The event is organised by Passion Ku and the Simpur Ultra event manual can be consulted via their website. There you can also register for the 50k, or for the 18k if you’re less ambitious.

The draft course map of the 50 km Simpur Ultra Run