Autumn in the southeastern mountains around Uljusan in South Korea can be cold already and that’s what runners experienced in this year’s edition of Ulju Trail Nine Peaks. The 9 Peaks race, with 121 km and well over 9000 hm elevation gain, is a genuine test of physical and mental strength. Korean runners completed the male and female podiums, with Junghyun Lim and Sunyeon Lee celebrated as race winners. The 5 Peaks of 45 km went to Ko Minchul and Hyunja Kim. Pre-race favourites Kim Jisu and Kim Jisub both did not start.

Junghyun Lim was in the lead for most of the second half of the tough race and had an advantage of more than one hour over Changsik Choi. Sung Jin Jang and Jong San Park were battling for podium with the former taking it. The women’s 9 Peaks actually saw Jung Soon Park on top of the leaderboard, but she got disqualified for apparently missing CP 9. Also Paulina Svoboda got disqualfied over halfway for not having her power bank on her as a mandatory item. Yonok Song claimed second and Ji Ho Hwang third place.

Ko Minchul grabbed his first ATM victory after two podium places, the last one this season in Korea 50k (third). Ko Minchul is therefore qualified for the ATM Championship Final. Kim Jongyol was second sixteen minutes later and Gyojeong Gu third another eight minutes later. Fourth overall and first woman was Hyunja Kim after an impressive performance. Sun Hwa Lee was second and Boyoung Jan third. The latter is now also automatically ensured of a spot in Team Korea for the ATM Final.

Singapore’s Trung Nguyen and Deric Lau were running in the lower half of the top ten for most of the 9 Peaks race. Trung scored 8th place in the end, and Lau 12th. Also Nguyen Hong Son from Vietnam and Takashi Wakiya got themselves into the top ten as non-Korean runners.

Deric Lau finished in 12th place

Boyoung Jan scored another podium - third - and is automatically qualified for the ATM Final

David Longo was comfortably inside the top eight until he went off course

Nguyen Hong Son and Trung Nguyen warming themselves up at CP 7 water boiling station

This weekend we have the second South Korean points race event on the ATM calendar in Uljusan. Ulju Trail 9 Peaks and Ulju Trail 5 Peaks are genuine mountain races engulfed in beautiful autumn colours. It makes for a wonderful trail experience, but also a very challenging one. The 9 Peaks race is 121 km with an elevation gain of well over 9000 hm. Even the 45km medium distance race has a whopping 3500 hm.

Korean runners are not often seen in the rest of Asia, and the number of trail events in the country is also quite modest then one would expect with so many quality distance runners around. It makes UTNP an event to look forward to with great interest. Looking at the start list of the longest race category, we see the name of Kim Jisu stand out among the local race favourites. Second in Korea 50k earlier this year, Jisu tends to be even more competitive on the longer distances. Last year, he also scored a second place in Seoul 100. Jisu will face some fast and well-experienced runners from Singapore as well, including Deric Lau, Trung Nguyen and Lem Chee Ng. Lau scored two Top 10 placings in ATM this season so far, in Dalat and Sierra Madre. Trung Nguyen had a very good VMM race last month ending in a fourth place. The question is can he sustain that level of effort for another 50km. The women’s 125km appears wide open with Singapore-based Chech Paulina Svoboda an established international name on the start list. Svoboda was running together with Shindy Patricia for over 50km in the very technical Cuc Phuong race in Vietnam before dropping out, but since then she has been very active.

On the 45km start list, the familiar name of last year’s winner Kim Jisub stands out. Question is how well he has recovered from an injury that plagued him for most of the year, even to the extent he has not been able to score any ATM points yet. Jisub won’t get the victory on a silver platter in any case, because there’s other competitors with a pedigree. Byeungwon Park is always solid on the medium distance, and so is Ko Minchul - second behind Jisub last year, and third in Korea 50k last April. Then there’s Hong Kong-based Australian David Longo, who has just scored second in Dark 45 behind Onifa. Longo can set himself up for the ATM Championship Final once again (last year he was 10th). Boyoung Jan and Gyesook Lee are among the favourites in the women’s 45km. Lee won last year’s Nine Peaks, but now doing the Five Peaks.

Stay tuned throughout Friday and Saturday on our Facebook and Instagram channels for updates from the races in Uljusan

While every finisher of the very tough 125 km long Ulju Trail 9 Peaks deserves an honourary mentioning, the winner of the 45 km and 2500 hm medium distance was nevertheless again the most eye-catching trail athlete of the weekend. Two weeks after storming to victory in Seoul, Kim Jisub smashed the opposition again in the Yeongnam Alps on Friday. Kim Jisub won in 5h19, half an hour ahead of Minchul Ko, and 45 minutes ahead of Jong Youl Kim. With two ATM race wins and 1000 points this season, Kim Jisub is already guaranteed of a spot in Team Korea for the ATM Championship Final race on Mount Apo in December. He would be one of the top favourites, even when - as with Jeff Campbell, for instance - 75km is a slightly longer distance than he is used to compete on. Also qualified for his country team already is Jaeduk Sim, who finished fourth in Ulju after a 3rd place in Seoul 100K two weeks ago.

The fastest three women on the 45km were Hyunja Kim, Narae Park and Eun Nam Kim.

The longest race distance lived up to its reputation as being one of the toughest mountain trails in the ATM series and Asia in general. The DNF rate was high, but nevertheless there were 52 finishers. The weather conditions were ideal to highlight the magnificent autumn colours of the mountain regions not too far from Busan in the southeastern corner of South Korea. Junghyun Lim was the strongest by one hour over Dong Kuk Jang in 23 hours 10 minutes . Youngmin Yoon completed the podium in fourth and was followed by India’s ATM Grandmaster Shashwat Rao - a pure mountain trail lover. Rao did have some bad luck along the way, as he missed a marker and therefore a potential podium finish. Gyesook Lee was first woman in the finish in a time of 28 hours 41 minutes. Ji Ho Hwang was second and Sun Yeon Lee third.

Ulju Nine Peaks Trail is a serious mountain running event in the southeast of South Korea, which for the first time offers two points races valid for the ATM Championship ranking. The massive 125 km race across “9 Peaks” and covering 9200 metres of elevation gain, and the shorter 45 km race across “5 Peaks” and 3500 hm. Event and race director Jey Jang is known from the Korea 50k event, which was part of ATM before for three years, and she hopes to make Ulju Nine Peaks Trail an annual must-do trail event for runners in Asia.

It is a beautiful region outright, but what makes it even more stunning this time of year are the autumn colours of the forests in and surrounding the Yeongnam Alps. Especially for people from Southeastern Asia, the large variety of colours is not an every-day sight. Moreover, autumn typically implies cooler and less humid weather conditions, too. Excellent for endurance athletes.

The 125 km was flagged off on Thursday morning, the 45 km will be on Friday.

Poy Brillantes is one of the Filipino runners running the 125 km of Ulju Nine Peaks Trail

A really tough mountain trail on the programme this weekend!