Japanese Runner Wins 28th International Mount Kinabalu Climbathon

KUNDASANG (Sabah, Malaysia), Oct 18 (Bernama) -- Last year's first runner-up in the Mount Kinabalu Climbathon - Summit Race of the men's category, Dai Matsumoto of Japan emerged victorious in this year's 28th edition of the race. The 31-year-old professional runner clocked 4'11:25 seconds to beat last year's champion Daved Simpat, 32, from Malaysia who had to settle in second place after finishing the race in 4'19:53s seconds. Matsumoto said he used Daved's winning time of 4'12:29s last year as his bench mark and motivation to prepare for this year's Climbathon. "I tested myself to run faster than Daved's finish time last year. I trained at Mount Fuji but the trail here is the toughest compared to other tracks in the world," he said when met by reporters after reaching the finish line here Saturday. He also clocked 2'17:29s to reach the summit behind Nepal's Hom Lal Shrestha (2'14:06s), but ahead of Daved (2'18:50s) Meanwhile, Daved said he did not train enough for this year's race due to exhaustion after clinching gold in the Suunto Lantau 2 Peaks 21km race in Hong Kong on Oct 5. "I only trained twice after the race in Hong Kong. Although I'm a bit disappointed with my finish time, I'm still happy that I finished among the top," said the Mount Kinabalu porter. First time participant Shrestha, 33, who finished the race third exactly three minutes behind Daved, dubbed the trail "dangerous", but was happy with his achievement. The Nepalese army personnel who took part in the Climbathon at his own expense said he hoped to take part in the competition next year. Meanwhile, New Zealand's Ruth Charlotte Croft, 25, clinched her second win in the women's category and improved her time of 5'24:28s set last year by clocking 5:01.39s to win the race. Claire Louise Milsom Price, 45, from Great Britain finished second in 5'37:52s ahead of Malaysia's Danny @ Kuilin Gongot, 47, who finished the race in 6'00:20s. The summit race, which covers 33km, was introduced last year when the summit course was revived due to popular demand by elite runners after the trail to the summit was scrapped in 2012. The summit race also introduced a new trail that started from the Kinabalu Park to Low's Peak, the highest peak of Mount Kinabalu at 4,095.2 metres, and descend 1,334.9 metres midway of the mountain at Layang-Layang Hut, passing Mesilau Nature Resort and ending at Kundasang town. The champion bagged US$2,443 (RM8,000) in cash, while first and second runner-up were awarded US$1,832 (RM6,000) and US$1,221 (RM4,000) respectively. -- BERNAMA