Day 4 of the inaugural ATM 500 Virtual Team Challenge again witnessed the finish of no fewer than eleven teams, after only three yesterday. Some big names of the ATM scene were among those, including the Sherpa’s Angels Team, which includes reigning ATM champion John Ellis and his predecessor Alessandro Sherpa. Under pressure by the Tokyo Nomad Team from Japan in the ‘Speedster Ranking’ , the international team managed to put the hammer down one last time to run home in a total time of 43:54:52, or an average speed of 11.39 km/h. Note that this great performance was not solely achieved by the two champions. Both David Longo and Malaysia’s Chong Mei Sze proved to be in top shape as well! The latter covered 129 km for her team in a time of 12:44:08.

The Japanese team also managed to reach the virtual finish line in a total time of 44:59:11, slightly quicker than. the first of the two Hong Kong-based Uglow teams with Elsa Jean de Dieu as captain. The team only had 13km left to run after yesterday and they left that job to Bryan Crane.

The first of the Cambodian teams completed the challenge, too. Team Kim Kok has been one of the revelations this week evidence of the growth of the sport in the Southeast Asian country. In Indonesia, we saw the Team OD led by Taofik Hidayat from Bandung Explorer take the virtual chequered flag. Team Dalagan joined the six previously finished teams of the Philippines. Grandmasters Richard Akol and Tin Salazar, plus ultra specialist Rolando Espina and promising young talent Godwin Mirar - age 19 - had a good final day as well. Interesting that the youngster Godwin Mirar took the lion’s share of the team with 170 km in 16 hours 11 minutes.

Team MRKC IV, based in Malaysia, nicknamed itself “the Undertrained” , but if they can finish 500 km in only four days we would like to know what happens when they are properly trained. Great job by Eddie Wong, James Willis, Reiko Yamashita and Nicolas Terrien. An extra applause for 71-year-old James Willis, who contributed 138km for his team!

Over in Singapore we had a surprise as the Good Vibes Runners made it home despite not being on the top leaderboard yet yesterday. A great push on day 4 by Cassandra Ansari Hie, Ana Robillard, Kevin Legris and Trung Nguyen. The latter is a special case, too, as he is currently in a compulsory quarantine centre in Vietnam, where he ran the corridors up and down to reach his minimum required mileage!

Cirque de Sore Legs is a contender for “best team name” later on, but they made it clear they did not take the ATM 500 jokingly, as they completed their 500k journey as well. Well done Elliott, David, Kerensa and Steve.

Run Free is the team built around Kent Wei, with Elle Wong, Appu Kops and Adli on the roster as well. A great effort on Thursday meant they also reached the finish.

Last but not least, the all-girls team “Girls Run The World” in Hong Kong followed into the footsteps of Veronika’s Trail Girls on Fire and completed their challenge. Big kuddos to Stephanie Pezot, Fang Wei, Sherlyn Fugaban and Syazana Alia Sabrudin!

The first Hong Kong-based Uglow team also arrived in a fast time on day 4.

A wonderful introduction to Cambodia’s trail runners: team Kim Kok is already in the finish on day 4

Team MKRC IV claims to be ‘undertrained’ but covering 500k in 4 days seems otherwise :-)

Singapore’s Good Vibe Runners had a big day today and crossed the 500k mark as well

Trung Nguyen had to run his share in the corridors of his mandatory quarantine residence in Vietnam!

An excellent day 4 for Team OD in Indonesia: they made it!

A strong Filipino team with Grandmasters Richard Akol and Tin Salazar, plus ultra specialist Rolando Espina and young talent Godwin Mirar. Bingo on day 4!

The Tokyo-based Nomad Team was topping the Speedster list yesterday, but on the fourth day they had to relinquish that spot again to Sherpa’s Angels. But they arrived at the 500k mark and we saw some outstanding running by this team during the week!

After the grand excitement of the first two days of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual team challenge, day 3 turned out to be a little more relaxed. Three teams managed to complete the 500k distance, while another 23 teams brought themselves to the 300km mark. The three successful teams today included Bocor Runners Balikpapan from Kalimantan, the often overlooked Indonesian part of Borneo island. It’s a great introduction to their running community, as previously Kalimantan runners had not really featured anywhere on the Asia Trail Master circuit. A sign of more to come?

Day 3 could be called Borneo Day, in fact, because a second finishing team also resides on the third largest island in the world: Team Darussalam from Brunei! Both teams also maintained a decent pace over the 500km with an AVS of over 7,5 km/h. Great work! To put the cherry on the pie, another Borneo athlete, but this time from Sabah in Malaysia, Milton Amat, made sure to get noticed in our ATM 500 as well. Milton chose for a family squad to take part in our running challenge without any competitive ambitions. However, the number 3 of last year’s ATM Championship and multiple ATM race winner, brought his personal mileage of the past three days to 245 km! So, if anyone had any doubts about his current state-of-form, Milton has just provided the answer.

A third team completed the 500k challenge today: team Pinikpikan TR from Philippines. Unfortunately, it is one of those teams of whom we have very little to no information, but the team includes Jenni-Vi Fontanilla who won the women’s Pilipinas Akyathlon last year in the Cordillera mountains close to Baguio. We will further update tomorrow on this great team.

Other regular elite runners in the Asia Trail Master series with daily office jobs seem to have started a competition between themselves for the so-called ‘Speedster Ranking’, which lists the teams in terms of their average running speed. In this list, Sherpa’s Angels - with John Ellis, Alessandro Sherpa, David Longo and Chong Mei Tze - was toppled yesterday by Team Uglow Asia 1 - with a strong Elsa Jean de Dieu, Paul Fournier, Guillaume Perrot and Bryan Crane. Also Cambodia’s Team Kok was mixing with the best in this game. After Day 3, we now suddenly have the Tokyo Nomad Team from Tomohiro Mizukoshi setting the fastest pace. The Japanese team that also includes Yuichiro Shimatai, Yuri Norimatsu and Satoru Yanoma was very productive on Wednesday and upped its pace to 11.25km/h. Sherpa’s Angels were short and sweet, too, and now show an AVS of 11.22 km/h - only marginally slower than Tokyo Nomad. Team Uglow Asia 1 focused more on distance today and ended with 487 km in the bank. Tomorrow it’s a splash & dash to the line for them. Their average speed is currently 11.10 km/h. If anyone in Hong Kong wants to see trail runners sprinting over just 2km tomorrow - contact Team Uglow Asia 1 for details :-) .

Team Heal As One from Philippines was a finisher yesterday

Tomohiro Mizukoshi’s Tokyo Nomad Team has upped the pace significantly and is now engaging leading the “Speedsters Ranking” ahead of “Sherpa’s Angels” and “Team Uglow Asia 1”

Sabah’s ATM protagonist Milton Amat has brought his family team to the 400km mark by running 250K by himself in the past three days! Now it’s up to the others to ensure they have each team member’s minimum requirement of 75km.

On Day 2 of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual team challenge expectations were exceeded again as no fewer than 13 teams completed the full distance on Tuesday, in another show of dedication, enthusiasm and sheer health in these difficult times. We cannot look past it, yesterday Rie Sugaya was the quickest as only woman in her Team BSK Marina Loopers, and today the Hong Kong’s Trail Girls on Fire clocked the fastest time of all finishing teams ! Our reigning Asia Trail Master Champion Veronika Vadovicova is obviously inspiring a lot of women with her new ‘Asia Trail Girls’ project, launched two weeks ago in her new home Hong Kong. The Slovakian herself was in excellent shape the past two days, too. Today she ran a 3:30 marathon on the back of a 7:27 ultra of 76km in very wet conditions yesterday! Estzer Csillag, whom we know from last year’s appearance and victory in the Magnificent Merapoh Trail in Malaysia, was equally impressive in doing 117 km in a time of 12 hours 13 minutes spread over two days. Nikki Han clocked 120 km in 13:07 and ultra distance specialist Habiba Benahmed took the team’s largest share of 142km and did it in 16:28! A total time for the team of 52:49:39 or an average speed of 9.46 km/h. Very few teams will break that time in the next 12 days….

On our leaderboard of the day we see the OCR Pilipinas II Team in second place with a total time of 58:16:48. The team was pushed forward by a very active and resilient Kyle Antolin, who took the lion’s share of 178 km and with quick legs, too! In fact, the second OCR Pilipinas Team required less time to complete the 500km than the number one team featuring 2016 ATM Champion Manolito Divina -nice seeing him back in action- and Sandi Menchi, a winner of 5 ATM races during her running career.

There were more finishers in the Philippines today. Team Heal As One Runners flew a bit under the radar as the four team members do not immediately ring a bell on the ATM circuit. Ha Ro, Han Lei, Doc Roman and Frankie Lobino: congratulations!

Team Mace and Team Vitargo PH also concluded their ATM 500 Challenge, making it five filipino squads in total. No other country does better. And it’s not like SIngapore, Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand are not trying! The BSK Underdogs (Singapore) and the MKRC Boleh! teams basically only had to a cool down after their 400+K runs on Monday. In Thailand, Team THAI - notably also with three women - and Team Asia I reached the virtual finish line in great style. The first team contains the well-known names of Cartoon Wipawee, Grandmasters Montha Suntornwit and Wasing Monghkolmalee, and Mum Kanlaya. The second team Asia I is a happy introduction to four new faces as well: Kim, Nok, Al and Seung.

Over in Indonesia, Team Arjuno led by in-form Bali-based German Thimo Kilberth and the promising young talent of Christin Mutia came home in a strong time of 58:35:17. That’s marginally slower than OCR Pilipinas 2 for fourth place on the results board. The team also has Akhmad Nizar and Mikha Muliawan in its ranks. Another Indonesian squad, Team Ba-Tam Ultra Runners, showed that yesterday’s 7th place on the leaderboard was no coincidence. Santih Gunawan, Fifi Bonefacia, Hui Tjen, Sansan Sanjawan ran the required additional 135km today to finish in a time 71:52:49.

Team Challenger from Malaysia with ATM regulars Mohamed Affindi, Jeffrey Budin, Sugeng Asianto and Izzah Hazirah succeeded as well today.

In terms of running speed, interestingly enough we now have Team Uglow Asia I setting the fastest pace! That’s another team based in Hong Kong featuring Elsa Jean de Dieu, Paul Fornier, Bryan Crane and Guillaume Perrot. With an AVS of 11.25 km/h they perform marginally quicker than Sherpa’s Angels with 11.05 km/h. At present, the team is “only” at the km 327 mark, though, while the team built around Alessandro Sherpa and John Ellis is at km 378. Another new appearance in this list of teams who have completed more than 250 km is Tokyo Nomad. That’s a quartet led by the famous Tomohiro Mizukoshi. They have been running around Japan’s capital city with an average speed of 10.75 km/h over 315 km.

Current Results Board ATM 500

Full team overview via the Google Page summary

The all-ladies quartet set the trails in Hong Kong on fire over the past two days!

Team THAI from Thailand

Team Asia I from Thailand

Malaysia’s Team MKRC Boleh! ran home after clocking 400k already yesterday

Team OCR Pilipinas II from Philippines

Team OCR Pilipinas I from Philippines

Team Ba Tam Ultra Runners

Team Arjuno from Indonesia

Team Vitargo PH from Philippines

Team Mace from Philippines

Team BSK Underdogs from Singapore

They had kind of announced it beforehand and they put their money where they mouths were: Singapore’s BSK Marina Loopers completed the inaugural ATM 500 Team Run Challenge as first of nearly 250 registered teams of four runners each. A few hours later it also turned out to be the only team to accomplish this amazing feat on a swelteringly hot day in the city. Rie Sugaya, Philippe Daniel, Yannick Duppich and Vincent Casanova delivered an outstanding ultrarunning performance and each completed an equal share of 125 km in less than 16 hours. In fact, the lady in the house, Japan’s Rie Sugaya, proved quickest in 13:34:08!

In the afternoon, reports were coming in of a few more teams with ambition to fulfill the 500k requirement by 10 pm. Team MKRC Boleh! in Kuala Lumpur, for instance, with seasoned runners Stephen Dundon, Chris Koelma, Thibault Bertrand and Jenny Holloway. Also the Filipino squad led by Neo Gentoleo - Vitargo - , Indonesia’s Team Arjuno with Thimo Kilberth (who climbed and descended Mt Batur along his way!) and Malaysia’s Team Challenger with Mohamed Affindi looked strong. Eventually they all got stuck around 420-400 KM. At cut-off time, it was suddenly another Singaporean Team that came closest to the 500k mark: the BSK Underdogs! The team consisting of Paulina Svoboda, Jerome Besnaud, Yan Moreno and Bernabe Sanchez ran 448 km! That means they only need a 15K “cool down” each to finish the ATM 500 tomorrow.

The first edition of ATM 500, dubbed “Run Asia, Run Virtual’ , is a creation by Sportlicious Malaysia in Penang and Asia Trail Master. Teams of four runners, of which one must be a woman, are required to complete a distance of 500 km in 14 days. Each day has maximum 18 running hours, subject to local regulations concerning the covid 19 crisis. After little more than a week of promotion, a shocking number of nearly 1000 people and 250 teams signed up for the challenge.

The ‘virtual’ event had not been designed as a pure race, but instead lays emphasis on the mass-participation aspect. The corona situation has led to a wide range of different measures set up by country governments, so that elites in a couple of places are seriously restricted in their options to compete for any potential top result. Nevertheless, we noted some outstanding performances on day 1.

The reigning women’s ATM Champion Veronika Vadovicova ran her 76K share of her “Trail Girls on Fire” team in a time of 7h27. That’s on a day with lots of rain and even a thunderstorm at the get-go early in the morning. Her teammates were clearly motivated to give it their best shot, too. Estzer Csillag - winner of TMMT 2019 - ran 8h07’ for 75K, Nikki Han did 78K in 8h27’ and experienced miler Habiba Benahmed took the largest share of the team with 100k in a time of 11h28’. Trail Girls on Fire is indeed a women’s-only team and sits in 10th place in the day’s ranking.

There’s been many wonderful achievements by individuals today that we cannot name them all, but it does strike us that the two gender categories were very well in balance! Other than Veronika’s team mentioned above, and Rie Sugaya as fastest of the ‘winning’ team in Singapore, in Thailand we saw both Cartoon Wipawee and Montha Suntornwit putting in over 100K runs, and so did Indonesia’s Christin Mutia and Philippines’ Ann Jilian Pulanco.

Further analysis of some known names on the ATM circuit, shows us that somehow John Ellis and Alessandro Sherpa ran virtually side-by-side for 71 KM despite being in different countries unaware of each other. Both locked in great times, too: Ellis did 73km in 5h54’ and Sherpa 71km in 5h52’. Let’s also mention that 2015 ATM Champion Arief Wismoyono had a quick day with 83km in 8:12:41. Over in Philippines, Kyle Antolin also managed a sub-10 hour 100K today.

UNOFFICIAL TOP 15 RANKING AFTER DAY 1

1. BSK Marina Loopers - 500 KM

2. BSK Underdogs - 448,5 KM

3. The Challengers - 418 KM

4. Vitargo PH - 408 KM

5. Arjuno - 405 KM

6. MKRC Boleh! - 400 KM

7. Ba-Tam Ultra Runners - 365 KM

8. THAI - 356 KM

9. ASIA 1 - 339 KM

10. Trail Girls on Fire - 330 KM

11. Mace - 326, 5 KM

12. Hallasan - 313 KM

13. Heal As One Runners 303 KM

14. OCR Pilipinas 2 303 KM

18 teams have already managed more than 250 of the 500 km yesterday. Of those, Sherpa’s Angels are clearly the fastest at the moment. With an average speed of 11.13 km/h for 252 km, they are nearly 2 km/h quicker than... Trail Girls on Fire! The all-ladies team around Veronika Vadovicova is second fastest with an average speed of 9.30km/h over 330 km. In third place in this side-ranking comes Team Arjuno from Indonesia with an avs of 9.20 km.h over 405 km. Team OCR Pilipinas 2 is next with 8.79 km/h over 303 km. Next are the BSK Underdogs from Singapore with 8.66 km/h over 448 km, who thus actually as a team ran at a faster pace than the BSK Marina Loopers... but couldn't keep it up for the full 500km. In fifth is Team Hallasan from South Korea with 8.48 km/h, followed by the winning team of ATM 500, BSK Marina Loopers, with an avs of 8.43 km/h.

It was bloody hot in Singapore today

John Ellis and David Longo started out in very wet weather this morning. They did not have the ambition to complete the challenge in one day

Also Fredelyn Alberto was looking at a lot of water as she got ready in the early morning in Hong Kong

Paulina Svoboda and het BSK Underdogs have the 500K mark within reach

This Monday at 4 am, more than 900 runners from all over Asia will commence their ATM 500 Virtual Team Run. A challenge in teams of four runners with the objective of completing the distance of 500 km within a timeframe of 14 days. Created by Karen Geh and KC Tan from Sportlicious Malaysia in Penang, the concept was further fine-tuned by Asia Trail Master, which has attached its brand name to assist in the promotion and the covering of the unique event that has taken the Asian trail running community by storm over the last week. Asia Trail Master is an annual points-based championship series in trail running with 30 races a year in 14 to 15 Asian countries.

For the upcoming Virtual Team Run, teams of four must include at least one woman and each team member is required to run minimum 75 km over the two-week-period. Each day by 10:30 pm, the team captains are required to send in their team's performance for validation. Due to nighttime curfews in several Asian cities or countries, the regulation says that valid runs must be done between 4 am and 10 pm. The organisers emphasize strongly that they do not want any runner to break local covid-19 regulations. Upon registration, teams could choose their own team name, posters with an event overlay were produced and went viral on social media. The snowball effect it triggered left even the organisers astonished.

“We had no idea this initiative would lead to such a continent-wide enthusiasm and it has caused an enormous amount of overtime work,” laughs Kris Van de Velde, founder and general manager of the Asia Trail Master Championship series. “It proves how much runners miss the events that have all been postponed or cancelled due to the covid 19 pandemic. The core idea of ATM 500 is to stimulate people to keep exercising and remain conscious of their physical and mental health, after we heard of several runners-in-lockdown letting themselves go and engaging in tv binge watching with all its tricky side-habits of consuming too many unhealthy snacks and beers. That is also the reason why the focus of our team challenge is on distance rather than on speed. People will motivate each other every day to move and increase the total mileage of the team. Of course, elite-level runners need to nurture their competitive spirit as well in these months without racing, and for sure some ‘elite teams’ will aim to win by completing the 500k as a team in just a couple of days."

Plenty of Asia’s finest have indeed signed up for the special occasion, including reigning Asia Trail Master champions John Ellis and Veronika Vadovicova, as well as former champions Alessandro Sherpa, Manolito Divina and Arief Wismoyono. Other household names we find in team rosters, are a.o. Jeff Campbell, Yuri Norimatsu, Fredelyn Alberto, Estzer Csillag, Quang Tran, Kristian Joergensen, Rie Sugaya, Milton Amat, Tomohiro Mizukoshi and Mohamed Affindi.

Not all elites will be gunning for victory, though. Milton Amat, winner of Borneo TMBT Ultra 100 and Mantra Summits Challenge and the best Sabahan runner in the ATM Championship for the last two years, loves the general concept and will take up the 500k challenge together with his young son Rheo, his sister Egnes and uncle Lukas as a ‘family team’.

On Sunday night, 230 teams had officially entered already. Registered teams come from all over Asia and even Spain. Kalimantan (Indonesia) and Cambodia have three teams each - despite having no history in the Asia Trail Master series.

Updates on the event’s proceedings will be released on the websites and social media channels of Asia Trail Master and Sportlicious Malaysia.

As the 1st edition of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual, is approaching, Sportlicious Malaysia and Asia Trail Master would first of all like to thank all of you for your enthusiasm and large number of registrations so far. It is going to be an exciting two weeks starting next Monday!

While the core objective is for all teams to complete the 500km milestone in fourteen days, of course some teams and its runners also wish to compete and be the first to complete the distance. This has compelled some people to raise a red alert: in several Asian countries there is still a nighttime curfew in place. As such, some of the participants in ATM 500 are unable to put in any significant mileage during nighttime hours. Curfews vary from place to place and may even be different between various cities or regions in one and the same country.

It goes without saying that both Sportlicious Malaysia and Asia Trail Master do not want anyone to break any official covid-19 regulations of the location you are in. Our virtual competition is not worth that. Please also consider the potential (social) media backlash against endurance runners should someone not stick to these regulations.

In order to keep the competition aspect of ATM 500 as fair as possible, we will therefore also introduce and enforce a daily ‘rest time’ from 10 pm until 4 am (6 hours). Logically, this means every team can only collect kilometres from 4 am to 10 pm (18 hours) each day starting on Monday, 8 June. During the ‘rest time’ kilometers cannot be collected and we hope that teams will respect this measure in the spirit of solidarity with those who cannot run at all during the night.

The times are the same for every time zone, so just look at your own watch.

The key regulations of our competition are summarised in the image below. Team Captains are advised to doublecheck the more detailed list mentioned in the original announcement from last week. Of the essence is that captains send in their team’s daily results by 10:30 pm every day. Sportlicious will be verifying everything and produce the daily team ranking by the early mornings. A daily report will later during the day also be published on the Asia Trail Master pages.

Photo and video material by the runners and teams are always welcome!

Let’s have some fun!

Nhon Trong leads one of the Vietnam teams.

Here’s Tomohiro Mizukoshi with his team of Tokyo Nomads!

Quang Tran is heading the Vietnam Monsters!

The iconic Izu Trail Journey event traversing the peninsula south of Tokyo is on the 2020 programme for Sunday, 13 December. The Japan SuperTrail in the Asia Trail Master Championship returns to the original 72km course after the typhoon-induced reroutes of last year. Fans of Izu Trail Journey will have wondered already why the registrations for the usually sold-out event have not yet been opened. Something that normally is done now in the first week of June.

Mr Tatsuo Chiba, co-event director of ITJ, confirmed to us that the registrations are postponed to 1 September, obviously also as a consequence of the corona pandemic. The situation in Japan and particularly the Tokyo and Izu area has improved a lot and restrictions are gradually being lifted. However, it is considered wiser to wait another three months, so both the event organisers and the runners can get a clearer picture of what to expect for this year’s edition. Even when still more than half a year from us now, it is likely that some special conditions or restrictions will be introduced for participation in the Izu Trail Journey 2020.

On a more positive note, in an attempt to revive the Japanese tourism industry there has been official talk of reduced pricing for transport and accommodation for travellers coming to the country later in the year.

More news on Izu Trail Journey in any case at the end of August.

Some of the ATM protagonists are always invited to come on stage during the press conference of ITJ

Veronika Vadovicova pulled off quite a stunt last year by winning the women’s race outright, despite not being 100% fit

Hisashi Kitamura was first of the ATM Championship contenders and was delighted with his result

A very familiar Japanese elite runner for many years: Shunsuke Okunomiya

Registrations for the upcoming first edition of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual by Sportlcious Malaysia are coming in on a regular basis now as teams are being formed all over Asia. The virtual endurance challenge begins next week on Monday, 8 June and ends no later than 21 June. While the core objective of the initiative is not necessarily the competition, it is great to see so many of our annual championship contenders already on the start list. We even have a team containing the ATM champions of the past two years: Alessandro Sherpa and John Ellis. They are flanked by David Longo and Chong Mei Tze under the team name “Sherpa’s Angels”. The “Smiling Assasin” team has an equally international composition with captain Michael McLean having persuaded 2020 ATM Championship co-leader Fredelyn Alberto, MMTF 2019 dominator Kristian Joergensen and 2020 Tahura Trail winner Jeff Campbell to join his squad.

Teams consist of maximum four people of which minimum one has to be female. Each runner in a team is required to run at least 75 km. Participants can choose between running on a treadmill, outdoors or indoors, road or trail. Daily results will be submitted by each team’s captain no later than 10 pm every night, and verified via Strava and the Sportlicious Malaysia Club. The first three teams that complete 500 km will be awarded, but all teams’ efforts will be acknowledged no matter they complete the virtual running challenge in five days or need the full two weeks of allocated time.

The ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual is primarily a fun challenge to keep spirits high and condition top in times when the next race is still months away - except if you live in Vietnam. Both organiser Sportlicious Malaysia and ourselves at Asia Trail Master will be reporting on a daily basis on the achievements of each team and each runner.

Online registration is very easy, just click on the button below that leads to a Google Form. Please do read the virtual race regulations first, though, to avoid any kind of misunderstanding afterwards.

A random selection of registered teams so far (all participants will be announced in the next days)

HOKA launches the brand new Torrent 2 today, upgraded from the original Torrent. This new trail running shoe has a great mix of cushioning and agility. The lightweight performance is made with a PROFLY midsole which gives a forgiving landing and responsive toe off. The Torrent 2 upper uses recycled Unifi REPREVE® yarn from post-consumer waste plastic making it a cleaner greener shoe and has a heel to toe drop of 5mm.

Visit your local countries HOKA Facebook site to find out where to buy the new Torrent 2.  https://www.facebook.com/HOKAONEONE/

You can rewatch Episode 3 of the Tale of the Trail now here on the website, on our YouTube Channel (recommended for easy streaming to your TV screen) and our facebook page. The show focused on the amended 2020 regulations for the Asia Trail Master Championship and the Grandmaster Quest, as well as on the new postponement of Korea 50K to late September.

Main takeaways of Episode 3:

• The regulations for the continuation of the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship have been amended following the many cancellations and postponements to date. Most significantly, the five-best-count system is replaced by a three-best-count system as it was back in 2015 and 2016. The ATM Final - Borneo TMBT Ultra 100K - is basically a must-run for anyone with Championship ambitions. An overview can be read on our separate news announcement as well.

• The time-freeze for the Grandmaster Quest has been extented from two to six months

• Veronika Vadovicova launches ‘Asia Trail Girls’ and does not exclude a late-season campaign to defend her ATM Championship title

• John Ellis is in excellent form despite the lack of races this year, is not opposed to a few ATM runs late in the season and has quite some new T8 products coming out soon

• Korea 50K did not get the required approvals to hold the event at the end of June due to a new infection wave two weeks ago, and is postponed by a further three months to late September

• Ultra Trail Chiang Rai remains on the programme for end October, but still a lot of uncertainty around sports and entertainment events in Thailand.

• Pongtorn Thavorn shares some of his insights as a finisher of the Ultimate 230 at UTCR

• Amy Khor talks to hardened ultra runner Alex Ang in ‘The Singapore Connection’

• Jess Boubie keeps busy creating ethnic bracelets in between running sessions in her home village in Sabah, and is looking forward to seeing all of you at TMBT in December

• Job Tanapong is injury-free and is waiting for a clearer running event plan while developing and managing his own coffee brand stores in Chiang Mai

The next episode of the Tale of the Trail will air on Friday, 12 June.

In follow-up to our earlier announcement on 16 March, the Asia Trail Master team has now decided to update and amend the regulations for both the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship and the Grandmaster Quest. Even though Dalat Ultra Trail in Vietnam is giving us a glimmer of hope for a return to some kind of normalcy, the fact is that in most Asian countries the corona pandemic is still ongoing with country borders closed and mass sports and entertainment events prohibited. With the exception of Ijen Trail in East Java, Indonesia, which will announce its decision mid-June, all events scheduled for June, July and August have either been cancelled or postponed to later in the year. After Dalat Ultra Trail, which will be held on 20 June exclusively with runners based in Vietnam, we are again looking at an event hiatus of at least three months until the Vietnam Mountain Marathon on 19 September.

It is not all gloom and doom, though. Counting the events on the calendar starting with VMM, we are still looking at 15/16 points races - depending on what happens with Ijen Trail. Of course, there is no guarantee all those events will take place, but now we are talking four months out. Looking back four months, Wuhan had only just gone into lockdown. Since then, the corona curve reached its global peak and also already started its decline in most countries - most importantly for us including in Asia. Let’s hope that in four months from today, the pandemic is over, the infection rate is under control to the extent borders can re-open and sports events can again take place. Under which conditions events will take place is another matter that may vary from country to country, but of the essence is first that they can take place again.

In the current circumstances it is no longer opportune, however, to demand from elite runners that they perform at their best in minimum five races and the ATM Final in order to have a chance to become Asia Trail Master champion. While a few contenders - with hindsight - have been wise to run one or two of the three points races that took place before the lockdowns, others simply didn’t have the chance to fulfil their ambitions as major early season events such as The 9 Dragons, Cordillera Mountain Ultra and (at first) Dalat Ultra Trail very quickly ran into trouble or got cancelled.

As such, the following decisions have been made for the continuation of the 2020 ATM Championship:

• Five-best-count system becomes a three-best-count system, plus one (3+1)

• The ‘one’ in ‘3+1’ stands for the ATM Final: Borneo TMBT Ultra 100 on 19 December 2020. While TMBT can be a runner’s third race, it will be important to run it for anyone who wants to become 2020 Champion because…

• … In order to boost mainstream media and sponsor appeal, ATM Championship contenders are expected to turn up for the final direct shoot-out of the season in and around Kota Kinabalu - Borneo TMBT Ultra 100 - or face a points penalty of 300 points.

  • E.g. if runner A completes three or more races but doesn’t attend the ATM Final race, his total points tally will be reduced by 300 points. if runner B does two races and goes to the ATM Final, he scores points as usual as TMBT is his 3rd race and it’s the Final

• In order to score more championship points in the ATM Final, you must have completed at least two prior ATM points races during the season (same rule as in 2019, to avoid tactical manoeuvring between contenders, e.g. by bringing to the race international stars such as Pau Capell or Killian Jornet to take points away from a championship rival)

• The “one-must-be-SuperTrail rule” is waived for 2020 —> no penalty points if you do not run a SuperTrail race this year

• The 50-bonus points rule for a 100 miles+ finish, SuperTrail race finish and Abroad Bonus is kept as always

Regarding the Grandmaster Quest, we are extending the ‘time freeze’ by four months until September as well. That means every runner who has already started his personal Grandmaster challenge now has six months more time to achieve the first star ( = 2,5 years since the first completed race).

As we wait for some proper trail running action in Dalat next month, we continue to support initiatives such as the ATM 500 - Run Asia Virtual Race by Sportlicious Malaysia, which will begin on 8 June. You can register as teams of four and stay motivated to keep the training up.

Please also remember you can subscribe to our website news articles easily (see ‘subscribe via email’ below) and stay tuned to our ‘Tale of the Trail’ video talk shows every two weeks.

Episode 3 of our bimonthly video talk show The Tale of the Trail will be broadcast tonight, Friday, 29 May, at 19:00 Hong Kong time (20:00 Korea; 18:00 Thailand). The episode is titled “Ending the Waiting Game’, referring to the long-awaited amendments to the regulations for the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship and the Grandmaster Quest. Our reigning champions John Ellis and Veronika Vadovicova will be on the show, as well as Jey Jang from South Korea to give us an update on Korea 50K. We will find out what is going on in Thailand during these difficult months and Amy Khor will be interviewing Alex Ang. In cooperation with Mark TWT there will be a feature on Sabah’s trail queen Jassica Lintanga, aka Jess Boubie, and finally there will be a chat with out Mystery Guest of this episode Job Tanapong.

The Tale of the Trail will be shown on the Asia Trail Master pages of both facebook and YouTube as well as here on the website.