Good news coming from Malaysia in the past few days. Covid-related restrictions are being eased in a number of sectors and places, and the Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival, aka MMTF, has received an official go-ahead signal for the event to take place on its original date of 17 to 19 December. The event team in Taiping has obtained the respective support and approvals from all parties concerned, most notably from Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia (KBS).

Following the big success of the 2019 edition, MMTF was once again chosen to be the Asia Trail Master Championship Final for the 2020/21 season. Unfortunately, the global corona pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works and, as announced in September, the Championship was declared suspended after none of the points races had been able to take place in the course of this year. This coming December, MMTF is also still likely to be run by Malaysia residents-only.

Still, it’s great news that - along with Batur Trail Challenge in Indonesia and Ultra Trail Panoramic in Thailand - we seem set to conclude this most difficult of years for the mass participation industry with a number of ‘real’ races.

To add extra flavour, it has been agreed that the 84 km longest race on the MMTF programme will be presented as the Malaysia Trail Master Championship. A winner-takes-all race, for the first time in the history of ATM, to stimulate the Malaysian elites after two years of quasi inactivity. Both male and female race winners will claim the title of ‘2021 Malaysia Trail Master’ and earn the right to free registration to any ATM points race in next year’s 2022 Championship series. The entire top 3 on the podium will receive prizes.

All runners on the ATM Grandmaster Quest will of course also collect a point for finishing the 84 km race. As previously announced, points scored in 2019 and 2020 remain valid due to the special circumstances. However, it is necessary to register your Grandmaster ambitions via our simple online form, if you have not already done so.

Expect more news coming towards you regarding MMTF in the next days. All registrants for the event must be aware of the strict application of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that the event team will be pushing forward and apply from this day, which is in support and in line with National Security Council (MKN) and Ministry of Health Malaysia (KKM) guidelines and initiatives. The covid pandemic is not over, and we can all assist in convincing our decision-makers that events can happen again in a safe manner.

Kristian Joergensen was the dominating winner of the 2019 men’s race at MMTF

Two years ago, Veronika Vadovicova sealed her ATM Championship winning season with her strongest performance until then

Gradually, trail running events are appearing on calendars again! Including in Indonesia, where the new Batur Trail Run has been confirmed for 4 December 2021 in the Kintamani region of Bali. The event will take place around the Museum Geopark Batur and is a long-term project by the Bali Trail Running group featuring experienced local runners Indah Wardhani and Vincent Chalias. The first edition in December offers a single 30 km race course with 1230 metres of elevation gain on and around the famous Mount Batur volcano, a long-time trekkers’ paradise on the island. Participants in the race will get to see Batur and its adjacent lake from a wholly different angle, though. As the corona crisis is not yet fully over, the event can only take place under a clear covid safety protocol and with a restricted number of runners of 150. Registrations were opened earlier this week and more than half of the available spots have already been claimed. The Batur Trail Run has received our ATM Candidate Race label and will be covered via our channels.

When over a year ago we decided to merge the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship series with the 2021 season, to honour runners’ efforts before the covid-19 pandemic went global, we were full of hope that this year would be a return to a ‘kind-of-normal’. Alas, it was not to be.

Throughout 2021 not a single event on our intended 2021 event calendar has been able to take place and country borders have remained as good as shut for leisure travellers on the Asian continent. Fortunately, it is not all gloom and doom anymore as there seems to be some light at the end of this long dark tunnel now, or should we say ‘again’. In a majority of countries the vaccination campaign has led to some success in curbing the spread of covid 19, and a number of borders might reopen soonish. A few trail running event organisers are even bravely persisting to make things happen in the final quarter of 2021 (e.g. Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival, Vietnam Mountain Marathon, High Trail 9 Peaks Ulju in South Korea and Izu Trail Journey in Japan). Nevertheless, these events will only feature domestic runners.

As a result, we feel there is no other way but to officially cancel the 2020/21 ATM Championship and shift the focus entirely towards 2022.

The current points leaders in our ranking, Trung Nguyen (Singapore but now based in Vietnam) and Julia Nguyen Thi Duong (Vietnam), receive an honourary mention in the ATM archive as such.

The ATM Championship ranking for competitive runners will be reset to zero at the start of 2022. Runners who focus on completing the ATM Grandmaster Quest retain their finish results of 2019, 2020 and 2021 due to the special circumstances, but must register their Grandmaster Quest intention via our usual online form in advance of their next race.

What’s next?

First, rest assured that Asia Trail Master aims to continue in 2022. What will the series look like next year? We do not have a crystal ball and formal plans we make today may be entirely outdated or impossible to implement two months from now. The corona crisis is not over yet. However, we remain optimistic and we do have a vision for next year, and that vision will be shared into the public space in the course of October.

Meanwhile, as mentioned above, we will give full support to the few events that still have the intention to proceed in the last months of 2021.

Stay Strong, Stay Ultra. Covid 19 has been a major challenge for all of us. The ATM crew wishes the entire community continuous strength and stamina to combat the crisis. Keep in shape, keep running to protect yourself, both physically and mentally. Soon we will all be able to meet and compete again on our favourite trails. Imagine that upcoming first race. What a joy it will be. No forest too thick, no mountain too high. What a joy it will be!

Trung Nguyen: 2020/21 ATM male points leader

Julia Nguyen Thi Duong: 2020/21 ATM female points leader

It has been a while since our latest formal news announcement, as basically all races under the ATM 2021 umbrella got cancelled in recent months due to the ongoing covid 19 pandemic that keeps a firm grip on the Asian continent. It has forced us to have a major rethink of the entire Asia Trail Master series’ set-up, given that, today, there still seems no end in sight to the extraordinary situation we all find ourselves in. This coming Friday, 1 October, we will be sharing initial decisions taken, and ideas developed for 2022. Please stay tuned.

Also in 2021 Vietnam seems to be the Asian country where most ‘real’ trail running events are and will be taking place. Vietnam Mountain Marathon and Vietnam Jungle Marathon are the classics on the Asia Trail Master Championship calendar in the mean time and already open for registration. Hopefully, by end of August and October some international runners will be able to enter the country by that time. That is currently still impossible, which is why Dalat Ultra Trail, which takes place this year early May, was not on our intended event calendar for 2021. This has opened an opportunity for another Vietnamese event to enter the ATM Championship and that honour has gone to last year’s Candidate Mu Cang Chai Trail in the northeast of the country. MCC, as it is often abbreviated, is scheduled for 18/19 September, which is the old date of VMM after the latter moved forward to end of August. As previously announced, Mu Cang Chai Trail offers a chance to the faster medium distance trail runners with the 50k race as the ATM Championship points race. The event organiser released a great teaser video - embedded below - to get you in the mood. Registrations open by the end of March.

Registrations are also open for the multiday boutique event Bali Volcano Race in December. This new event has the ATM Candidate Race label and has a lot of options on its programme. There’s the 3-day stage race, with limited numbers, and there’s two single day races around Mount Batur as well: Batur Extreme and Batur Adventure. Bali Volcano Race has Spanish roots and is one of several new events that were in the pipeline on the island of the gods last year. Hopefully, things can really get going in the coming months, indeed. More details on BVR via its website.

As mentioned above, Vietnam Mountain Marathon and Vietnam Jungle Marathon are open for registration as well , and you can do so via the website of the event organiser.

The ATM Final is set in Malaysia on 18 December, and if you were there or were following the 2019 race coverage you know you do not want to miss this: Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival in Taiping is open for registration as well.

Another ATM Candidate Race has opened the books this week and confirmed its event date for 2021. Malnad Ultra in India is scheduled for 27/28 November. It will be the 5th edition of the event, which offers three ultra categories of 110km, 80km and 50km. The course takes runners through the beautiful Kadumane Estate, with stunning views in the Western Ghats of South India. A nice and comprehensive teaser video is embedded below.

VMM in Sapa has one of the most iconic finish lines in Asia

Not a lot of news over the past two weeks on the ATM circuit, as everyone keeps waiting for possibilities to make more formal and decisive plans. The good news, however, is that the registrations for the Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival and the Vietnam Mountain Marathon have been going well, indicating again how hungry many runners are for real events. Ewegene Tan, event organiser of MMTF, even mentions a lot of international sign-ups, not in the least from the Philippines. MMTF is the last event on the ATM calendar this year on 18 December, making it the “ATM Final” once again after 2019.

How that Championship Final will be designed is a matter that is increasingly being discussed these weeks, as it appears unlikely the majority of Asian runners will be able to put in four of five results during the 2021 season. We will be updating you all on this in the coming weeks.

Registration for MMTF goes via the official event website.

In Vietnam, runners have had the most opportunities to keep up their racing spirit and so far it looks like that may remain the case in 2021. Both the Vietnam Mountain Marathon (end of August) and Vietnam Jungle Marathon (mid-October) are open for registration. These are popular events, so you may wish to sign up already and keep your participation chances alive. Go to the official website.

In Thailand, things have become more complicated in recent months but are expected to normalise again in May. Nevertheless, following meetings with local authorities on Koh Samui, organiser teelakow has decided to postpone Samui Monkey’s Trail from May to September at a weekend to be decided later. At the same time, it has been announced that the trail route will be completely redesigned for this year’s edition. For more info on Samui Monkey’s Trail, please consider the event’s facebook page.

Over in Japan, the Echigo Country Trail in Nagaoka, Niigata, remains one of the earliest events on the schedule for this year on 20 June. Registrations for the 60km points race are open via the official website.

Here’s our second brief news round-up as the global covid 19 pandemic continues to restrict travel and event organisation opportunities. It is now exactly one year since the last international points race for the Asia Trail Master Championship. That was UTKC, aka Ultra Trail Koh Chang, in Thailand. A year ago, Fredelyn Alberto looked stronger than ever in winning the women’s tough 100k race, and a weakened Hisashi Kitamura, due to sickness, had to content himself with third place behind the surprisingly strong Filipino Arnie Macaneras and last-minute winner Paul Dunn. Ryan Whelan won the 70K for men, and Elviemma Catabay completed the Filipino success in Thailand that day by taking victory in the women’s 70km. UTKC saw some unexpected and amazing runs by people who had been working hard for months to reach that level of performance. Hopefully, these runners have not given up during the pandemic and will harvest more fruit from their training labour as soon as competition resumes.

In the Philippines, sadly, this may take still several months. This week, Philip Anthony of the MUSPO event at Lake Apo on MIndanao informed us they have not received the permission from the authorities to hold the scheduled event this July. Rather than postponing by a few months and see what happens, the organisation has decided to shift focus immediately towards 2022. MUSPO is sponsored by HOKA ONE ONE and is an eagerly anticipated young event with a 100k that shows a good balance between runable and technical terrain.

A formal decision on the Negros Oriental event set in early June, Puncak Tanawan Mountain Run, is expected within the next two weeks. The other two Filipino events on the ATM Calendar, Cordillera Mountain Ultra and The Punisher are scheduled back-to-back at the end of this year.

In Malaysia, the new Candidate Race Jagoi Heritage Run in Sarawak has been postponed. Originally set for April, the 50k event will now take place on the first weekend of November. Another Candidate Race, the Bali Volcano Race - which offers a stage race and individual race categories - is back on the programme for the second weekend of December.

Theoretically speaking, the first points race event on the calendar remains Korea 50k on 22/23 May.

Paul Dunn, Arnie Macaneras and Hisashi Kitamura. A fantastic podium at UTKC 100 now one year ago

Elviemma and Fredelyn: Filipinos dominated the women’s 100k and 70k races at UTKC

Ryan Whelan scored his maiden ATM points race victory on the 70k at UTKC last year

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As Tahura Trail in Indonesia got cancelled at the very last moment, we are once again looking at a draught of real trail running events with for the foreseeable future. Our 2021 intended event calendar, released early December 2020, had already anticipated this renewed situation as the global covid 19 pandemic is still raging. The calendar has a clear focus on the second semester, and as such nothing much has been changing in the past couple of months. However, there’s always a bit of news and we will be posting a weekly or bi-weekly round-up going forward.

Korea 50K moves to 22/23 May 2021

With Tahura Trail called off at the last minute, the next real race on the ATM Calendar is Korea 50k. Normally taking place towards the end of April, the organisational team decided earlier this week to create a bit more breathing space and move it back by one month to 22 and 23 May. Still, the covid 19 situation is not over in South Korea neither, and a final decision whether the event can happen will be discussed again with the authorities of Dongducheon City at the end of this month. It goes almost without saying that in any case it will be an event with domestic residents-only, as there is no expectation of an open border by then.

MMTF in Malaysia opens registration

As in 2019, the last race in the Asia Trail Master Championship series this year will be the Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival in Taiping, Malaysia on 18 December. The ATM Final will have a new race venue in the city, Esplanade, and offers several race categories of which the 84 km is of course the main one for the Championship contenders. The event has opened regular registration this week, so if you want to be already certain of your spot in the participants’ list, you can sign up here.

Echigo opens registration and a new website

Yuta Matsuyama of Team Uglow Asia is the new race director of Echigo Country Trail and he has been freshening up and redesigning several aspects of the Japanese event, which has been part of the Asia Trail Master Championship series since 2016. The event takes place in Nagaoka in Niigata, roughly 2 hours northwest from Tokyo by shinkansen but there’s also a few international flights going there directly - in a normal world. The main race is 60 km long now with 2350 metres of elevation and if you are in Japan, you can sign up now. Have a look at the great new website as well.

Two A-races per event in Thailand

In Thailand there is a tendency to introduce mega ultra distance races to the trail event programmes, which creates the option for having more than 1 so-called A-race for ATM Championship points. As was already the case at Ultra Trail Chiang Rai in previous years, also at Doi Nhok Trail, Samui Monkeys Trail and Ultra Trail Chiang Mai, runners can choose between the 100 miles (or longer) or the medium distance category and earn a full haul of points for their performances. The only difference is that finishers on the 100 miles or longer get the traditional “100-Miles Bonus” of 25 points as well.

The Doi Nhok Trail event in Thailand on 6 November now offers two A-points races for the Asia Trail Master Championship. The longest distance, the 100 miles, was already labeled as such, but now also the medium distance of 58 km will be credited with 500 points for the winner.

The Doi Nhok Trail takes place in the north of the country in Wang Nuea in Lampang, roughly between the cities Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. The region is beloved by trail runners and certainly in Thailand it has become the playground for many events in the last few years. Doi Nhok Trail, in short DNT, is new on the ATM calendar this year. It will be the last of four scheduled events in the country, following Samui Monkeys’ Trail, Ultra Trail Chiang Mai and the classic Ultra Trail Chiang Rai - still the Thailand SuperTrail in ATM with 50 bonus points for all finishers.

We are nearly one week into 2021 and what everyone hopes to be a more pleasant year with - some months down the line - the resumption of (international) mass participation events. While we wait, we can get in shape. It is typical to gain a few kilos or pounds during the end-of-year festivities so here is your chance to motivate yourselves to get those running shoes back on and get out there on the trails or just on the roads. The 7 Missions team running challenge begins next week on Monday, and - in the spirit of ATM 500 - is going to be another pan-asian running community happening lasting for one week and with manageable requirements for all. Teams of four runners will be running a predetermined distance each day, with the goal of “completing the mission”. That requires three of the four team members to run the required distance (or 1 hour time on Wednesday). To add a bit of a competitive aspect, for those who like, the team that completes all 7 missions in the fastest time will be declared winner. The fastest runners and best climbers in each team will also be awarded via the Cheetah Cup and the Mountain Goat Trophy.

The 7 Missions is happy and grateful to be supported by T8, Uglow, OTSO and High Trail 9 Peaks Ulju. All sponsors will be handing out prizes to the best performing teams and to lucky draw winners as well.

We keep the registration open until Sunday night at midnight, so if you haven’t registered your team yet, you can still look for your team partners and do so in the next days via the link below on the Sportlicious Malaysia website.

Stay tuned for more news , and please also join our instagram and facebook pages to get the latest news and team presentations.

The 9th edition of Tahura Trail in Bandung will not be the same spectactular trail festival weekend as usual, but at least there will still be ‘real’ trail running on the original 42k marathon course, and ATM Championship points up for grabs on Saturday, 23 January. Good news for runners in Indonesia, who have a chance to score points in the same manner those in Vietnam, Thailand and Japan have been able to do in the past couple of months. It is a brilliant and laudible effort by the running division of IBA, technical event organisers, to make this happen in an area where the health crisis is currently far from over. Registration opens on Boxing Day, 26 December.

Under the tagline “The new normal” , the Tahura Trail event as a whole will actually last for two full weeks, as covid 19 prevention measures do not allow more than 150 people inside the park and on the trail course on the same day. The event protocol has been agreed with local authorities and will be strictly policed. Even though everyone has a fortnight from 16 to 31 January to run the course in the various race distance categories, it is important to emphasise that the elite runners aiming for ATM Championship points must sign up for the race on the 23rd, as all other days do not count. The main reason is to of course ensure everyone will be running in the same weather and trail conditions.

The Indonesian country borders remain closed for the time being, so the event will be held with domestic residents-only. Race packages, including timing chip, will be sent by post to successful registrants, who also need to hand in a valid rapid test result certificate from a hospital when they come to the Tahura park. Runners are required to download the race route onto their GPS watch or phone app, and follow the permanent marking signs along the route. Very important for result verification is also the requirement to take photos at the starting point, all checkpoints along the route and the finish point. The official starting time for the elite 42k race is between 6 and 8 am.

Last January the Tahura Trail race was won by Jeff Campbell, who had already won once back in 2018, and Charlotte Tacquet. In the upcoming edition, local and other Indonesian trail stars such as Ruth Theresia, Arief Wismoyono, Yusuf Aprian and Taofik Hidayat will have a great opportunity to boost their ATM Championship ranking before international events resume again.

What a podium in the men’s race last year. Jeff Campbell took his second win at Tahura

Max 150 runners permitted per day, but that should still provide for a great race on the 23rd when the ATM Championship points are on the line

At home in the Tahura Park: Ruth Theresia. She could move up to 2nd place in the 2020-21 ATM Championship ranking

Will Yusuf Aprian grab the chance to run himself into the international picture this time around?