Record participation numbers this weekend for BTR Ultra in Bali, Indonesia. The event now firmly established itself as the most popular trail running event in Indonesia offering race categories that suit both the long ultra and technical trail adepts and the beginning young newbies. The 100km and 60km categories are once again qualifiers for the ATM Championship and the 100km also offers a point for runners’ Grandmaster Quest.

Looking at the start list for the 100km, we could have quite an open race for the victory. Then again, just like last year’s Roberto Cain III and Man Yee Cheung, someone might just accelerate early during the night already (race starts Friday evening). The usual local Indonesian competitors are present, such as long ultra specialist Rachmat Septiyanto, Sobiri Haerudin, Yusuf Aprian and Taofik Hidayat. On a good day, anyone of them could walk away from Bali with the race win - especially Septiyanto. However, on paper there’s at least two interesting challengers: Japan’s Hiroyuki Matsuda and Central Java’s Risqi Kurniawan. Matsuda was the impressive race winner of BUTM 100 in Sabah, Malaysia, last month and sits fourth in the overall ATM points ranking this season. He is ensuring himself of a spot on his country’s team for the Championship Finals in Vietnam in October. Kurniawan has been unbeatable in Indonesia on the medium distances from 40 top 70k, roughly speaking. He has been a bit away from the spotlights in the last two years, though. Now attempting to do the 100 in Bali, injury-prone Risqi could either blow the entire field away or suffer a reality check. Another known dark horse is India’s Shashwat Rao. Shashwat loves tough and technical mountain terrain and has proven to be very competitive on his day.

BTR Ultra 100 is obviously also on the Grandmaster Quest calendar, and one Golden Grandmaster is already looking to score the recently introduced new milestone for trail runners who have scored their fourth star. Mario Yap from Philippines can Become Legend this weekend! After securing his 4th Grandmaster star for 20 long ultra finishes under ATM at the VTM event at the end of January, Mario immediately embarked on the new Trail to Immortality challenge. Since early March, he ran and finished races in five countries and collected 400 points for 400 official kilometres ran. This weekend in Bali, Mario can add another 100 to make it 500 : the milestone for earning the title of ATM Legend.

The women’s 100km start list features 2018 ATM Champion and Indonesia’s only Golden Grandmaster so far, Ruth Theresia. Based in Hong Kong now, Ruth Theresia suffered a DNF in Bali last year and, first of all, aims to set that straight this weekend. Several other victory contenders, though. Her compatriots like former Mantra winners Henny Sutanda and Sianti Candra, for instance. Philippines’ Metzi Joy Alson could get in the mix for podium at least, as well as Siao Ai Lim, Ang Yee Mei and Tamae Harada.

The 60K Men has some big international guns on the list, along with a strong Indonesian line-up spearheaded by Akhmad Nizar, Dedy Yusuf and Sobari Herdiana. Let’s see what they can do against Japan’s Yutaro Yokouchi and Russia’s Navil Shaimukhametov. Heat and humidity may play a role here, but these two’s sheer running pace is beyond any doubt. Plenty of other podium and top five contenders who are well-known on the ATM circuit, such as Golden Grandmaster Tomohiro Mizukoshi, Alex Tilley, Luis Avelais.

The women’s 60K has Aurore Dacier on the start list, but she will reportedly not be competing. That opens the door for other victory candidates such as another Hong Kong-based French woman: Celine Loubiere. Winner of the 9 Dragons 50km and third in Lantau 70 already this ATM season. Thailand’s Phitchanan Mahachot always remains a strong competitor, and Philippines’ Trisha Reyes is not to be underestimated. From Malaysia, Halimatun Sa’adiah and Lolita Lintanga can aim for a top result. Local Indonesian runners who may have ambition for podium are Fitta Emike Sari andSri Wahyuni. There’s over 800 runners on the 60k start list, so we may of course discover some new talents as well!

BTR Ultra in Bali with record participation numbers