The 4th edition of the Asia Trail Master Championship series commences in Bandung, Indonesia, this Saturday with the 42k long Tahura Trail. A classic race, not too short yet with enough spice to test the legs in the early part of the new season following the new year's festivities. Before we focus on what is to come, let's take a quick look back - out of respect - to the podia of the previous three editions of the Asia Trail Master Championship series.
One of the hot newcomers in the 2018 Asia Trail Master Championship has opened registration. Mantra Summits Challenge is accepting all experienced mountain runners for a genuine challenge over 75 km on a technical course that reaches peaks well above 3000m altitude. Shorter distances are also available, yet the 75 km is what counts for the championship and the Grandmaster Quest.
The event is organised by the Mantra Runners in Malang, East Java. As last year, when the race was a Candidate Race, the Kaliandra Eco Resort will host the event, providing comfortable accommodation in even quite a historic Javanese setting.
Definitely one of the toughest races on the calendar, do not take this one lightly. For runners traveling from farther away, the Mantra Summits Challenge can be combined with the less technical Ijen Trailrunning event one week later a bit further east in Java. Doing that allows you then to hop onto a ferry to Bali to conclude your fantastic East Javanese trail running week in which you can score a load of Asia Trail Master Championship and Grandmaster points. Our Wold the Trail Indonesia package will also include a mid-week training and hiking session on either Bromo or one of the other majestic volcanoes in this area.
Registration for Mantra Summits Challenge works via the official event website.
We are happy to confirm that UTN 100, aka Ultra-Trail Nan, in northeastern Thailand will again be a points race in the Asia Trail Master Championship on 20 and 21 October this year. The scenic event offers a 100K and 50K option, whereby the 100K counts for the championship.
The 100K race goes in and around the Doi Phu Kha Park and is quite tough with approx. 5700 metres of elevation gain. More precise details for 2018 will become available in due course. Last season, local heroes Sanya Khancai and Phichanan Mahachot took the victory.
You can find out more details on the race on our event cover page.
It remains one of the gems on the Asian and Asia Trail Master race calendar: Mongolia Sunrise to Sunset is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2018, an accomplishment that few - if any - trail running organisations can claim! The classic 100k and 42k races are held in a very remote area that requires some travel time, but all participants over the years argue it is well worth the effort and time. Once more, MS2S is a points race in the Asia Trail Master Championship series as well. Race Day is 1 August 2018, and subject to the overall number of starting runners being above or below 100, the male and female winners of the 100k race will score 500 (400 performance points +100 finisher points) or 400 (300+100) points for the ATM championship. The elevation gain for the 100k is 3360 hm and you have 18 hours to complete the distance. In other words, it is really from sunrise to sunset and you do need to keep moving during the race.
Mongolia Sunrise 2 Sunset is also non-profit as it helps the local Mongolian communities in the Hovsgol National Park preserve their environment and livelihood.
As the event philosophy explains: the park has two small Mongolian towns as well as scores of local nomadic groups and families, and therefore any conservation efforts must go hand in hand with these local users of the park. The event therefore aims to contribute as much as possible to the local economy and to raise awareness among locals that standards of living can best be raised by preserving the park and the local culture. We have tried to achieve this by engaging the local community in the event. This ranges from hiring help to setting the course to hiring local doctors supervise aid stations. We are also actively encouraging locals to participate in the race. In setting the course, we have sought to minimize the impact on the natural environment and we use bio-degradable green paint to mark the course.
Registration is open and travel packages from Ulanbaatar are available via the official website. For the key details you can also take a look at our event cover page and the video trailer below.
More details:
Pencil in now: V-TRAIL in LAOS! We are happy to announce a brand new entry in the 2018 Asia Trail Master Championship, as well as a new destination: V-Trail will be taking place in Vang Vien, north of Vientiane, in Laos on the weekend of 3/4 November 2018!
On the programme will be a 100K and a 60K with 4500 hm and 2400 Hm respectively. V-Trail will be run almost entirely on natural trails and will be a true adventure for all participants. Effectively, this will be the first high-profile trail race in Laos. The technical organisation is in the hands of Thai company Teelakow, known for several other ATM points races such as UTKC in February.
Registration for the V-Trail will open soon.
With special thanks to Race Timing Solutions, leading registration and time-keeping company in Hong Kong, we are now ready to officially roll out our race and runner database to the ATM community. Most of you have already noticed that a lot of things are 'clickable' in the Asia Trail Master Championship ranking interface, and we invite you all to try and click on your name. What you will find is your running profile and history of ATM race performances. As of now, you can edit your profile, and add as much content and information as you like. To do so, you need to follow a few steps first. Essentially, you need a personal password to enter.
For runners to access their ATM profiles, you just need to e-mail RTS at info@racetimingsolutions.com and their staff will issue you with a password. Your e-mail address will serve as your log-in ID.
Once you are into your own page, you can add content as much as you like. It is YOUR page.
Please note that the results database goes back to 2016, when we launched the system together with RTS. The race results of the first ATM season in 2015 are therefore not (yet) integrated into the database.
One important element we would like to highlight: the famous ATM ID. As you can see below, each runner has an ID number in ATM, which is very important as it allows us to add your race results to your profile automatically.
Race registration providers such as Raceyaya (Rizal Mountain Run, Akyathlon, CMU, Sungai Menyala etc) now have a special line in their race form asking for your ATM ID when you sign up. Although not mandatory, we kindly request that you always enter your ID number into this field when requested by a race organiser. This does help us a lot to save time, and will also allow us to update the ATM ranking even faster after every points race. We thank all of you in advance for your assistance. Besides, isn't it great to have a track record of all your ATM races in one place?
In Asia Trail Master there is the championship, and then there is the Grandmaster Quest. For newbies to our website and social media channels, the Grandmaster Quest is an individual challenge open for all trail runners to accomplish. What do you need to do to become an Asia Trail Grandmaster? Finish six ATM races of 70 km or longer (or shorter but with 4500 hm) within two years. That is level 1 for which you earn 1 star and entry into our Hall of Fame. Continue running to 10 race finishes, without further time pressure, and you earn yourself a second Grandmaster star! At the end of 2017, 15 runners have now achieved Grandmaster status. Interestingly, the gender balance tills in favour of the female sex: we have 8 women for 7 men! Can women suffer discomfort more, longer and more frequently than men? It would appear trail running can now have its own chapter in the eternal discussion about the stronger and weaker human gender... We will explore this interesting conclusion of the 2017 ATM season more in depth soon!
Of the 15 Grandmasters, three of them reached the second level in 2017. Aleksis Capili was again first, followed by Isaac Yuen Wan Ho and also Bali's Lily Suryani earned her second star as first female with an incredible string of ultra trail finishes between May and November. Lily's Hall of Fame profile shows that no fewer than 9 of her 10 eligible Grandmaster race finishes since 2015 were 100 km or longer. This includes 6 ultra race finishes in the last six months, and actually even 7, as Lily also completed BTS Ultra 100 again. However, as it was the third time she finished that same race it no longer provided any extra Grandmaster point. Earlier this month, Lily Suryani still started in HK 168, but arguable it was the one race too many for this year. Not being the youngest runner on the ATM tour, Lily Suryani proved that determination and focus get you a very long way in trail running, and a genuine congratulations are in order!
Isaac showed his stamina as well in the second half of the year with six ultra race finishes since Penang Eco 100 miles in May. The Hong Kong star now totals 11 Grandmaster points, and in combination with his 6th place in the 2017 ATM Championship he certainly is one of the year's top performers!
Aleksis Capili was the first Grandmaster ever, and he obtained 2 stars also as first ever at the Mount Apo Sky Race in Davao, Philippines, last April. Since then, Aleksis has added one more race to his record, which brings his Grandmaster record to 11 race finishes as well! As Lily in BTS Ultra, Aleksis did CM50 Ultra for a third time, but a third-time finish of the same race does not increase the Grandmaster total.
While some ATM Championship contenders have naturally also reached Grandmaster status, others who are not so often in the spotlights deserve a mentioning for reaching their big objective: Joseph Sibal, Cheryl Bihag from Philippines, and Ali Ajis Rasil from Brunei have all had ups and downs during their Grandmaster Quest, but they have succeeded in securing their 1 star at Ultra-Trail Panoramic in Thailand earlier this month. Well done!
Below is the overview of the current 15 Asia Trail Grandmasters. Who will join them in 2018?
2 stars
10 or more races of 70+ km
Aleksis Capili
Philippines / Thailand
1st Male ** Grandmaster
1st Male * Grandmaster
Isaac Yuen Wan Ho
Hong Kong
2nd Male ** Grandmaster
4th Male * Grandmaster
Lily Suryani
Indonesia
1st Female ** Grandmaster
3rd Female * Grandmaster
1 star
6 ATM races of 70+ km in 2 years
Arief Wismoyono
Indonesia
3rd Male * Grandmaster
Ina Budiyarni
Indonesia
1st Female * Grandmaster
Shindy Patricia
Indonesia
6th Female * Grandmaster
Jan Nilsen
Norway / Thailand
2nd Male * Grandmaster
Ruth Theresia
Indonesia
2nd Female * Grandmaster
Tahira Najmunisaa
Malaysia
4th Female * Grandmaster
Yim Heng Fatt
Malaysia
5th Male * Grandmaster
Adelinah Lintanga
Malaysia
5th Female * Grandmaster
Kim Matthews
Australia / Vietnam
7th Female * Grandmaster
Joseph Sibal
Philippines
6th Male * Grandmaster
Ali Ajis Rasil
Brunei Darussalam
7th Male * Grandmaster
Cheryl Bihag
Philippines
8th Female * Grandmaster
As previously announced, the points regulations for the 2018 Asia Trail Master Championship series do not differ a lot from 2017. Perhaps the most prominent innovation is that runners who do five (or more) races are expected to have done 1 SuperTrail as well by the end of 2018 or suffer a points penalty of 250 points. This measure is of course to avoid that a strong runner collects race wins - and thus 500 points - in slightly smaller races on the ATM calendar and in so doing potentially become champion without ever facing the other protagonists in the championship.
A second interesting novelty is that 100 miles finishers will now get 50 bonus points instead of 25.
Finally, an important remark that was already there in 2017 but we wish to emphasize it for 2018: joint finishes are only accepted in the first quarter. That means, as of Sungai Menyala Forest Trail on 1 April, if runners come together hand-in-hand into the finish we will make a distinction between them by looking at their ranking at the last - or an earlier - checkpoint during the race.
Please take a look at the image slide below for the key points:
As in the past two years, maximum six races will be credited as SuperTrail in the 2018 Asia Trail Master Championship series. Each SuperTrail offers 50 bonus points for finishers of the race and this can be important for those runners chasing a high ranking in the championship. Following popular demand by 'protagonists' in our series, we are now introducing a few changes to the SuperTrail selection in two countries: Philippines and Indonesia. The main argument being that also top runners sometimes like to see something new and breathe some fresh air during their trail campaign. As such, the Philippines SuperTrail in 2018 will be the Cordillera Mountain Ultra in Dalupirip, organised by the Cordillera Conservation Trust on the weekend of 3/4 March. It is also the shortest SuperTrail on our calendar, as CMU measures "just" 50k but does feature considerable elevation gain (2640 hm) with the ascent of Mount Ugo. Most importantly, for two years in succession, runners and spectators are raving about the event!
In the past two years, the races were hotly contested with Marcelino Sano-Oy winning in 2016 and Arnold Lozano this year. Will Manolito Divina add his name to the record books in 2018? The women's race was won by Gretchen Felipe in 2016, while Sandi Menchi took one of her three 2017 ATM wins in Dalupirip.
The Japan SuperTrail on the Izu Peninsula proved to be a genuine SuperTrail. Not only because of the fantastic course, but also because of the harsh temperatures and the incredible average speed of the Japanese trail runners. It has to be admitted: the South-East Asians who came to Japan had a hard time competing with the elite of the country for the top positions. Japan is of course the distance running country par excellence, but it turned out that many of its top runners were also waiting for a race like Izu Trail Journey to motivate themselves to stay in shape during the cold winter. As such, Izu Trail Journey was an eye-opening experience for many participants. The race was controlled by four runners up front: last year's winner Tomohiro Tsuji, Kota Araki, Yuya Kawasaki and Yoshihito Kondo. These four took off after the first climb of the 72 km race roughly 9 km into the race. At that point, Brunei's Sefli Ahar, who was challenging for the Asia Trail Master Championship as the last man to still overtake Steven Ong on points, was running in 9th place and just 3 minutes behind the front quartet. Sadly, Ahar did start to suffer from the cold. Temperatures were only marginally above zero and the gale winds in the mountain zone made it feel a lot colder still. Winner of CM50 and BTS Ultra in the last six weeks, Sefli Ahar could not close the gap with the Japanese top runners and lost terrain as the race progressed. Suffering from frozen eyes and breathing problems, the 43-year-old Bruneian nevertheless finished the race - 61st - and with his chin up. Sefli Ahar certainly made the ATM Championship exciting until the last moment and we are looking forward to seeing him back in 2018.
Meanwhile, Kota Araki turned out to be the strongest of the leaders and pulled away. Only Yuya Kawasaki was able to stay close and kept the pressure on. Kawasaki almost paid a price for that, though, as he faded towards the end and saw Yoshihito Kondo finish less than a minute behind him in third place. First non-Japanese was New Zealand's Richard Coughlan. Time of the winner, Kato Araki, was 6:43:48. Izu Trail Journey is 72 km with 4300 Hm and run in a deepfreezer. Araki and Kawasaki will allegedly now represent Japan in the Trail World Championships in Spain next year. Spain's Pablo Diago Gonzales was just outside the top 100 and Hong Kong's Isaac Yuen Wan Ho, who became a two-star Grandmaster, just outside the top 300, which proves the very high level of Japanese trail running.
The women's race was a tight battle between Ayano Saito and Kaori Asahari. Both runners were never far apart from each other, and finished also just three minutes separate. Okinawa-based Corinne Williams was an excellent third place. Philippines' Patricia Ann Morota and Indonesia's Shindy Patricia are two ATM protagonists who also finished the race.
Jun Kaise being greeted by pandas at the km 42 mark
Kota Araki was the strongest runner and won the Japan SuperTrail
Yuya Kawasaki was a great second with a lot of fighting spirit
The top 3 of the Izu Trail Journey
The two top women at Izu: what a battle decided in favour of Ayano Saito
Steven with Thai RD Nop
The 2nd edition of Ultra-Trail Panoramic from Maehongson to Pai in the Northwest of Thailand was again the final 100 miler in the Asia Trail Master Championship. While participant numbers were still on the low side in 2016, this year the event attracted many hundreds of runners including some of the best ultra trail runners in Asia. And yes, the winner - Steven Ong - crowned himself the new champion in the process!
Steven did not have the best memory of his last visit to Thailand, when he had jelly legs that eventually even resulted in a DNF at Ultra-Trail Chiang Rai last October. As such, Ong made his life chasing the Asia Trail Master title much more difficult. The 40-year-old Malaysian was the hot pick for the championship after the first semester, and especially after his commanding victory at Tam Dao Mountain Trail in Vietnam. He looked to have everything under control when he traveled to Europe during the summer. But then came Chiang Rai and the zero points, when his main rivals such as Arief Wismoyono, Sefli Ahar and Manolito Divina were collecting top points everywhere in Asia.
But then came Chiang Rai and the zero points, when his main rivals such as Arief Wismoyono, Sefli Ahar and Manolito Divina were collecting large doses of points everywhere in Asia. Suddenly, it was make-or-break for Steven Ong and it all had to happen in one race: Ultra-Trail Panoramic. On paper the task was huge. Ong was facing tough competition from 2016 ATM Champion Manolito Divina, who beat him in April at the fast Sungai Menyala 50k, Italy's Alessandro Sherpa, Japan's Wataru Iino and last but not least Thailand's own Sanya Khancai. A lot of good trail runners who could steal necessary points away from Ong. As the race unfolded, Ong again adopted a sit-back and see-what-happens approach, which is becoming his trademark. After 100 km he was ranked alongside Khancai in third place, but nearly an hour down on Wataru Iino, and also Sherpa was running ahead of him. Manolito Divina, unfortunately, had already dropped out by then. AT CP2 he was visibly unwell with severe stomach issues, which ended his ATM season on a sad note.
As mobile connectivity is limited in the forest area near Pai, everyone was expecting a Japanese race victory at the finish line. Until all of a sudden, reports from the field announced the imminent arrival of Steven Ong into the finish as leader of the race! The new Asia Trail Master champion ran a very strong final section to pass both Iino and Sherpa and grab his fourth race victory of the ATM season. In fact, also Sanya Khancai still overtook the early leaders to take second place on the podium. Iino salvaged third.
New ATM champion Kim Matthews struggled with stomach cramps
In the women's race, the new Asia Trail Master champion Kim Matthews pulled out rather quickly due to stomach cramps as well. Matthews, who was certain of the ATM title following the DNS of Tahira Najmunisaa, had started her first ever 100 miles, but it wasn't to be on this occasion. Her role, however, was taken over in splendid style by another Australian runner: Joanna Kruk. Kruk, from Polish descent, raised eyebrows last October by winning Ultra Trail Chiang Rai with a formidable pace. And did she do it again! Always running right behind the top four men, she even managed to catch Alessandro Sherpa still going into the finish. Joanna Kruk lives in Australia and has been flying over for the races. If she does that five times in 2018, we have another championship contender! With three races this year, she still manages to score 1575 points and 7th place in the championship, ahead of Sandi Menchi who also 3 races in the books. Joining her on the podium of the 100 miles race were Hong Kong's Shuk Kuen and South Korea's Been Lee.
Joseph Sibal is a popular new Asia Trail Grandmaster after finishing the 100k race!
Another Australian woman dominated the race: Joanna Kruk! After UTCR a second BIG win
Thailand's Sanya Khancai was second in the men's 100 miles after winning UTN100 in October
The 2017 Asia Trail Master season is a wrap and we are very happy to announce the following two runners as our new Champions: Steven Soonseng Ong from Malaysia and Kim Matthews from Australia. Both excellent trail runners held off the charge of previous champions Manolito Divina, Arief Wismoyono and Tahira Najmunisaa Muhammad Zaid, respectively. Ong crowned himself last weekend by winning UT Panoramic in Thailand, while Kim already had the title assured before last weekend's race as Tahira is still in recovery and could not start. Below a few key details about our new champions!
Steven Soonseng Ong
The 40-year-old Malaysian impressed everybody this year with his intelligent approach to ultra races that resulted in four big wins. In his last one, Ultra-Trail Panoramic in Thailand last weekend, Ong came back from third place to catch the two front runners in the final 60 km. Not only is he the new Asia Trail Master Champion, he is also a real "Trail Brain" !
Kim Matthews
Born in Victoria, Australia, Kim has since lived in Thailand and since recently Vietnam. A runner for nearly ten years, she is also an ambassador for the vegan community in Asia. We got to know her this season as a woman who goes beyond the limit to reach the finish - especially when it was hot and humid. Kim Matthews is a well-deserved Asia Trail Master Champion and successor to Tahira Najmunisaa Muhammad Zaid! Congratulations!!
