Also UToP is forced to cancel after all

Only a day after the cancellation announcement by Borneo TMBT Ultra, another Malaysian event everyone was really looking forward to has thrown in the towel. Ultimate Trails of Penang cannot take place in a fortnight. The Botanical Garden, where the event’s start and finish is located, is no longer giving permission to use the agreed venue due to the recent wave of increased Covid-19 cases throughout the country. Event Director Seow Kong Ng, who had spared no effort in the past weeks to make UToP happen within the currently permitted framework put forward by government, sees no chance to find an alternative event venue in such a short time and has decided to look forward to 2021 from now on out. UToP has been scheduled for the weekend of 9/10 October 2021.

This means that there will not be any points races in Malaysia in 2020. The five scheduled events this year were Cameron Ultra, The Great Malaya Trail, Borneo TMBT Ultra, Ultimate Trails of Penang and the TNF Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival. All events remain on the 2021 Asia Trail Master calendar.

For the remainder of 2020, only the events in Thailand (Ultra Trail Chiang Rai, Monkeys Trail), Vietnam (VJM and VMM) and Japan (Izu Trail Journey) are looking to go ahead as planned. Lantau 70 in Hong Kong has not officially been cancelled yet, but seems increasingly unlikely to happen. The same applies for The Punisher on Mindanao in the southern Philippines.