The 3rd edition of Bali Ultra Trail is set for 3 August and will once again return to Gunung Batur in both the 80km and 50km ATM points race categories. The exciting and popular event is now open for registration. Bali Ultra will be one of the last three events where runners can score points for qualification into the ATM Championship Final at Borneo TMBT Ultra on 14 September.
The race route has again been redesigned after it was not permitted to climb Batur a year ago. Those political issues have now been solved, and the famous volcano and the crater rim are again featured in both the 50 miles [80km] and 50km courses. The other climb, Mount Abang, has not been recovered, however. The new route is essentially an out-and-back from Kintamani across Batur to the northern beach shore. Total elevation gain for the 80km is estimated at 4400hm and for the 50km at 2700hm. Start and finish is still at the Geopark Museum in Kintamani. There’s plenty of boutique-style accommodation and a few bigger hotel resorts in Kintamani. Alternatively, major tourism hub Ubud is not that far away neither and one could take a motorbike or taxi from there, too. The start is more or less at sunrise, 6am local time, so Bali Ultra Trail is a daytime race for the most part. Runners should be aware and prepare accordingly, as Bali obviously gets hot during the day. Running during the day of course means you will enjoy the the great scenery to the maximum.
Registration is open via the official website below.
Shindy Patricia won the 100km women’s race last season
Popular Nami Ishihara was 2nd just under two minutes behind Katrin Herzog last year on the 50km. Ishihara is already on the points table again this season with her 10th place in Izu Trail Journey
Akmad Nizar and Sobari Herdiana: always protagonists in Indonesian trail races
Risqi, Shindy & Rachmat again underline top form in Bali
Risqi Kurniawan took his third ATM race win in Indonesia within little over a month and increasingly looks like a top favourite for this year’s ATM Championship title. Kurniawan outran a stubbornly tough Han Ching Su from Taiwan and his compatriots Akmad Nizar and Sobari Herdiana on the 50km of Bali Ultra Trail in Kintamani. On the 100km, Rachmat Septiyanto took his premier ATM race victory while Shindy Patricia proved her super-form again with her third ATM win of the 2023 season!
Bali Ultra Trail changed the race courses at the last moment to avoid potential repercussions following political statements that climbing Bali’s mountains would very soon be outlawed. This made the race more runable than originally planned, but it still proved tough enough - also due to the heat & humidity plaguing especially the many Japanese athletes.
The 50km was on paper the most competitive distance category and so it turned out to be. As said, Risqi Kurniawan again showed his amazing speed on this distance and it will be interesting to find out if he can stretch that to 77km on 2 December. What should help him in any case: he ran Siksorogo last year and Gunung Lawu is close to his hometown of Magelang! Team Indonesia is building up very nicely with also Akmad Nizar almost assured of qualification for the ATM Final. Nizar has been operating in the shadow of Kurniawan, but consistently so and the smart youngster can certainly produce something special at Siksorogo himself. Team Indonesia will also feature Bali-based German Thimo Kilberth, who had his best race of this season by finishing sixth and “only” 33 minutes behind Kurniawan. Fifth went to the second Taiwanese Pin Chi Chou. Great to see runners from Taiwan feature in an ATM race for once!
The women’s 50km developed into a tight battle between Japan’s Nami Ishihara and Germany’s Katrin Herzog. For a long time, Ishihara had the upper hand, but Herzog came back towards the end and managed to overtake her for the win. In third came Singapore’s Dening Lo, followed by Hszin Tzu Chao from Taiwan and Indonesia’s Siti Nuraini, who probably would have preferred to climb Mt Batur and Mt Abang. Bali’s home runner Dian Pradina had a great performance to finish sixth.
On the 100km, Japanese aces Yuta Matsuyama [male] and Tomomi Bitoh [female] set the pace for the first half, but both began to fade as a result of the climatic conditions and saw others coming back to them. Matsuyama was with Indonesia’s Abdul Salam at first, but he would DNF later and the experienced Rachmat Septiyanto was the one to claim the victory at the end. Second in Mantra 116 seven weeks ago, Septiyanto scored his first ATM race victory and is actually as good as qualified for the ATM Final and Team Indonesia. However, he is the lead organiser of Siksorogo Lawu Ultra and Septiyanto obviously cannot do both things. Matsuyama boosted his chances for qualification in Team Japan. Japan’s Takeshi Hashimoto was the third man on the podium, ahead of Vietnamese runners De Nguyen and Trung Hau Phan. Australia’s Washington Firmeza came sixth in another ATM race finish this season.
Shindy Patricia was chasing Tomomi Bitoh for a long time, being just a few minutes behind the strong and experienced Japanese runner. As often, Shindy is the one who slows down the least in the second part of ultras, and so it was again. In fact, Shindy went on to win comfortably but finished even second overall behind Septiyanto. Matsuyama came next but then it was Vietnam’s Julia Nguyen Thi Duong - in another wonderful performance of the weekend. Tomomi Bitoh still salvaged her podium in third.
Within just 2 months, Central Javanese youngster Risqi Kurniawan has propelled himself into a top fabourite position for the 2023 ATM Championship title.
Podium of the 50km women with Germany’s Katrin Herzog as winner
Wonderful to see a runner from Taiwan [Chinese Taipei] on the podium! Han Ching Su
Rachmat Septiyanto takes his first ever ATM race win
Third ATM victory of the season for in-form Shindy Patricia
Podium of the 100 km women
Podium of the 100km men
Bali Ultra: new regulations force route change
Bali Ultra is one of the most anticipated points race events of the 2023 ATM season and the last one in Indonesia before the country of islands hosts the Championship Final on 2 December. That means for those Indonesian runners who do not like or can travel abroad, this is the final shot at a points haul to try and get in the top 5 of the ranking and inside the host Team Indonesia. No surprise that many of the country’s trail running stars feature on the start list, but there’s a very large foreign presence as well, notably from Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia.
The event takes place in Kintamani, in the volcanic north of Bali. Many people might have heard already that the local governor has recently been pushing for an outright ban on climbing Bali’s mountains, including the famous and very popular Mount Batur - highlight of plenty a tourist visit to Bali and of Bali Ultra Trail. Whether or not the ban will effectively come into law still remains to be seen [a formal decision in September is rumoured], but the organisers of BUT have seen no other choice but to comply already, so as not to potentially jeopardise the event’s future. The consequence is that both the 100k and 50k are now much more runable than originally planned, as also the ascent of Abang has been omitted from the course. Good and fast distance runners, rather than volcano climbers will thus likely be seen at the top of the leaderboards and result lists this weekend.
On paper that means the Japanese runners, if they can deal with the tropical heat, are arguably the top favourites for the podium places and the race wins - at least on the 100k. Yuta Matsuyama in the men’s, and Timomi Bitoh in the women’s will indeed be the ones to beat. Matsuyama, double winner of UT Chiang Mai over the years, also wants to win to collect the 500 ATM points. He has expressed his desire to be part of Team Japan in the ATM Final this year. He already scored a 6th place in Dalat Ultra Trail in March, but now he is in better shape again than half a year ago. There can always be a surprise, e.g. from Vietnam, but his main rivals are probably going to be Solo’s Rachmat Septiyanto and Fuminori Kondo. Septiyanto may find the new course a bit too flat for his liking, though. Tomomi Bitoh was 2nd in Seoul 100k last year, and has just done a long ultra in Mongolia. Question thus is if she is recovered enough from that to deal with the rejuvenated Shindy Patricia, who has never looked faster and stronger than in the past eight months. Julia Duong Thi Nguyen, Isabelle Bedard and Qheiza Wiranda Edelwise are other podium contenders we know.
Patricia aside, most of Indonesia’s current top runners are on the 50k, including Risqi Kurniawan. He won this race last year and it is hard to bet against him this weekend, but there’s many unknowns on the start list. Akmad Nizar could be strong on this course as well. What about Taofik Hidayat, Sobiri Haerudin, a motivated Thimo KIlberth - who actually likes the redesigned course from his competitive point of view? Misha Ushakov looked solid in Mantra until he abandoned.
On the women’s 50km, former ATM champion Ruth Theresia features on the start list, but it is not clear yet which distance she will run after her nasty kidney infection a few months ago. Ruth is still on the way back, but showed great promise by winning the 30k race at Mantra. This weekend, Mantra 60 winner Siti Nuraini could secure her spot in Team Indonesia for the finals. Let’s see how she fares on the more runable trails. Many podium contenders also here, including Malaysia’s Jess Lintanga, Halimatun Sa’adiah, several japanese runners such as Yuuka Maeno, Novita Wulandari [winner in Dieng a month ago], Yustina Wardhani and so on.
Siti Nuraini, double winner of Mantra 75, can qualify for the women’s Team Indonesia this weekend
Rachmat Septiyanto was 2nd in Mantra 116 and hopes to collect another podium en route to potential Team Indonesia qualification at the ATM Final
Tomomi Bitoh is one of the favourites in this weekend’s 100km race
Shindy Patricia: what can she do now the course is more runable?
Bali Ultra Trail confirmed for 19 August
Bali Ultra Trail on and around Mount Batur in the beautiful Kintamani region is confirmed for the weekend of 19/20 August this year. After a successful edition as a Candidate Race last year, we are pleased to announce that both the 100km and 50km race categories are new points races for the 2023 ATM Championship ranking. Registration opens soon.
Popular tourist attraction Batur is rapidly gaining a reputation as a prime trail running destination as well. The old volcano is not the highest and also not the most technical to climb, but it is a challenge nonetheless and the views from the mountain are astonishing. Bali Ultra Trail has Grandmaster Dendi Dwitiandi as race director and the second edition will build further on the experience of 2022. The 80km becomes 100km and will retain the mentally tough out-and-back section towards the beach in North Bali. The 50km wil stick to the Batur area itself. Precise course details for the upcoming edition will be revealed in due course.
Meanwhile, book your weekend for Bali in August and prepare for another exciting race weekend!
Last year Arief Wismoyono won the 50k race at Bali Ultra Trail
Top dogs perform at Bali Ultra and Transnaning Challenge
Last weekend two ATM Candidate Races took place in Indonesia and Malaysia. The Malaysian Transnaning Ultra Challenge, directed by 2017 ATM Champion Steven Ong, turned out to be an extremely tough effort for even the most experienced and toughened ultra trail runners. That was expected, too, of course, and it was no real surprise that the two winners of the “Legend” five-loop race - 100 miles+ with almost 12000 hm - were Wilsen Singgin and Siokhar Lim. Singgin already had credentials for this type of challenge, having won the Ultimate 230 of Ultra Trail Chiang Rai in 2019. Siokhar Lim was 5th in the ATM Championship and is a Grandmaster who showed numerous times already that she will be there up front when things get really tough. The cut-off time of the Legend Race was 60 hours. Wilsen needed just under 50, and was over four hours ahead of Chin Han Keong and six-and-a-half ahead of Oh Jin Heng. Siokhar Lim timed her effort so as to finish within the cut off in 59 hours and 37 minutes. The other two finishers were Maihazan Nurafendy and Yuen Loong Ho. Milton Amat won the 4-loop race, Ahmad Tanjong the 3-loops, Mohammad Syahmim Nazmy the 2-loops together with Seiji Morofuji and Wai Kit Wong was quickest on the single loop. Sanisah Bujang was fastest female over 34km, Ellie Pang Hui Yi over 2 loops, Leumathong Siriporn over 3.
Over in Bali, many of the top runners were present around Mt Batur in Kintamani for the Candidate Race Bali Ultra Trail, which had been planned since 2019 but never happened until last weekend due to the corona crisis. On the programme 80k and 50k as the main race categories, with also a surprisingly competitive 25k and 10k. Overall, BUT also proved to be tougher than expected, with more technicality than the BTR Challenge last May.
The 80K race was won by “good old” 2015 ATM Champion Arief Wismoyono, who once again proved to be back at his best level. Initially, he was dropped by Lombok’s Abdul Salem and Sulawesi’s Rachmat. Two very fast runners who have made name for themselves on the domestic Indonesian scene. Wismoyono knew, however, that his favourite terrain - Mt Batur - would come at the end and he was able to stay within ten minutes of the lead duo. Rachmat Septiyanto once again had to settle for a fourth place just off the podium, as he was ‘best of the rest’. Wismoyono actually still made it look easy in the last part of the race and finished with an ample bonus of 45 minutes over Salem and 1h15’ over Rachmat. With this kind of form, Wismoyono will be top contender to regain the Asia Trail Master Champion’s title on Mount Apo in Philippines on 17 December.
On the 50k we also had a very strong quartet competing for the podium. Initially they were even five, but Alan Maulana oncemore suffered from stomach cramps and pulled out over halfway distance. Up front, the twin brothers Sobari and Sobiri battled with their fellow-Bandung runner Taofik Hidayat and Riyadi Slamet. The latter was quickest before the first climb, Mt Abang. Later, Sobari looked like the strongest of them all, having opened up a gap of over 15 minutes to Hidayat with just 5k to go. But Sobari suffered from a heatstroke and dehydration on a sunny hot day in Kintamani and struggled his way to Resto Apung and the finish. He made it by only two minutes. Hidayat second, Sobiri third and Riyadi fourth.
Shindy Patricia added another victory to her ever-growing collection in the women’s 50k race. At the first aid station it looked like she could get some serious competition from Singapore’s Hu Xiaoqin, but this year Shindy has been performing really well in the mountains and in the end she was able to cruise home. Hu Xiaoqin took second. Thimo Kilberth took a nice and sold win on the 25K, which also included a double ascent of Batur. Kilberth chose to run the shorter 25k in preparation for Jember Hills Classic in a fortnight, a race where he could already secure himself a place in Team Indonesia for the ATM Championship Final in December.
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