MALAYSIA — John “Stingray” Onifa of the Philippines did it again.

Onifa, one of the leading Filipino trail runners based in Hong Kong, made the country proud in the recent North Face Malaysia Mountain Trail 2023.

The multi-awarded campaigner from Antique, who is being sponsored by T8, completed anorher successful campaign by winning the god medal in the 50K Ultra Trail Challenge with a time of 15: 32:25.

Onifa, also currently Asia’s fourth highest ranked runner outside of China with an ITRA performance ranking of 859 also bagged the silver medal in 13Km in a time of 1:00:36, and bronze medal in the Vertical Kilometer with a time of 00:51:47.

The Filipino champion, who is also the red hot favorite in the Asia Trail Master series in 2023, is known for setting course records with wins at Dark 45, the Vietnam Mountain Marathon 50K, The Most Beautiful Thing 50K and AKHA Trail 78K — all in new course records– as well as representing the Philippines at the World Mountain and Trail Running Champs in Austria last June 2023.

Last month, he also dominated the Barclays Moon Trekker,one of Hong Kong’s classic trail races which takes place at night as participants tackle a fast but technical route which finishes with an ascent of Hong Kong’s second highest peak, Lantau Peak and then a steep descent to the finish line at Cheung Sha beach.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ed Andaya