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Angelie Cabalo, Kristian Jorgensen and Milton Amat Win Inaugural 100km at MMTF 2022

Filipino John Stingray Onifa won the Vertical Kilometer race, followed by Malaysian Soh Wai Ching. (Facebook/MMTF)

The inaugural 100KM Ultra-Trail Challenge by the North Face® Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival 2022 was won by Kristian Jorgensen and Milton Amat in 12 hours and 48 minutes. The women’s race was won by Angelie Cabalo in 17 hours and 3 minutes.

THE North Face® Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival 2022 was held from the 24-27 November 2022 after the Malaysia’s 15th General Election forced the postponement of the race. The race gave every runner a chance of a lifetime to experience different trails around Taiping Lake Gardens and the iconic Maxwell Hill (Bukit Larut) in the silver state of Perak.

The 100KM men’s podium was completed by Aqmal Adzmi, Wilsen Singgin, Chris Timms and Ahmad Tanjong. Meanwhile, Maria Josephine Liao and Sally Ann Yu Ing Yap completed the women’s podium.

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John Stingray Onifa won the inaugural Vertical Kilometer (VK) challenge in 49:31 followed by Soh Wai Ching and Alessandro Sherpa. Meanwhile, Esther Hor won the women’s category in 01:29:25 followed by Cheong Yen Keng and Claris Loke. The VK race took runners up to 1000m asl (above sea level) in just over 5KM, flagged off at the foothills of Maxwell.

It was the first time 2 new challenges – Vertical Kilometer (VK) and 100KM were added to the existing 13KM, 25KM and 50KM distances. Runners were taken through the pristine trails in Taiping whilst being tested with multiple elevation gains of 1000m for the VK, 700m for the 13KM, 1300m for the 25KM, 2900m for the 50KM and 5750m for the 100KM. Despite the postponement, 1538 runners competed in the 5 categories.

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The 100KM, 50KM and 25KM races were suspended after 16.5 hours of racing during the race weekend. The decision was made whilst almost 1000 runners were still on the course. The suspension is deemed necessary because of potential threats following bad weather including a fallen tree which narrowly missed a Filipino runner.

The 50KM Ultra Challenge was won by John Stingray Onifa (05:12:14) followed by Daved Simpat and Arnie Macaneras. The women’s race was won by Eszter Csillag in 6:40:11 followed by Kona Liau and Roan Biguasen Gumangan.

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The 25KM Ball Breaker Challenge was won by Hisashi Kitamura (03:03:35) followed by Daareneshwaran Siva Kumar and Daniel Yap. The women’s race was won by Hanna Rashid in 04:24:01 followed by Margilyn Medina and Maryani Ismail.

The 13KM Freshmen Challenge was won by John Stingray Onifa who completed a treble in a time of 01:02:47 followed by Law Lip Hou and Mohamad Amir Hassan. The women’s race was won by Melinda Wang (01:34:04) followed by Esther Hor and Wong Xin Li.

The North Face® Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival takes pride in zero incident and zero claims record since 2018. Hence, the safety and well-being of all runners and event crew was of the utmost importance and the race suspension was deemed necessary.