BY Pavel Toropov
BY Lloyd Belcher
Sunmaya Budha
2016 Manaslu Trail Race
2016 MSIG Lantau 50K
2017 Yading Skyrunning Festival -Skyrun
2017 Marathon Du Mont-Blanc 80K
2017 Manaslu Trail Race
Sunmaya Budha is Asian Skyrunning
Runner-up and one of the most talented young trail runners in Asia.
BY Lloyd Belcher
She is 22 years old, and comes from Jumla, central
Nepal. Jumla is poor, one of the poorest places in Nepal. Sunmaya grew up in
poverty - her family work the small piece of land and barely make enough to
eat. Sunmaya’s mother cannot read and write. Sunmaya herself grew up walking
across the mountains, barefoot, carrying loads of vegetables and firewood. She
grew up tough, and she had one talent – running. “At school, I won every race.” she told me, very seriously, when we
first met. “800metres, 3000metres, 5000 metres – everything.” Running is what
saved Sunmaya.
in Karnali Sports Club
in Karnali Sports Club
Harry Rokaya, a famous Nepali mountain runner,
and the winner of the six – time winner of Everest Marathon spotted Sunmaya at
a school race. He then invited her to train full-time at “Karnali Sports Club”
– a full time training base. Here young Nepali runners live together and train
full-time running twice day. Some aspire to become professional mountain
runners, some want to win races and then get into Nepali Army, who like to
recruit successful athletes. Army means stable job and a pension.
Life
at Karnali Sports Club is hard – it is cold, there is not enough food, the runners
lack basic equipment, and they run twice a day, on track and in the mountains.
“Sometimes I was so hungry that I had to make myself sleep to forget about the
hunger” Sunmaya told me about her life in Karnali Sports Club.
in Karnali Sports Club
in Karnali Sports Club
Sunmaya was lucky. Richard Bull, an
Englishman living in Nepal, the founder of organization called Trail Running
Nepal, organises mountain races there and he invites promising young Nepali
runners, free of charge to take part.
In 2015 Sunmaya was invited by Richard invited
to Manaslu Trail Race, a 200km stage race around the 8000m high Manaslu Peak in
the Himalaya. Sunmaya won – first woman and 5th overall. It was obvious
that she was incredibly talented and Richard Bull, Trail Running Nepal and
Lloyd Belcher, a Hong – Kong based running photographer decided to help.
BY Anuj D. Adhikary
BY Anuj D. Adhikary
Richard helped Sunmaya get a
passport, collected money for plane tickets and Sunmaya raced in Asian Sky
Running Championships in Hong Kong where she came second. In the Vertical
Kilometre race before, she was also second, beating the then current UTMB
champion Caroline Chaverot.
Richard Bull teamed up with race organizers and
brands to develop Sunmaya’s talent. Solomon invited Sunmaya to
Europe where she trained with Solomon international team and then came 7th
in Mont-blanc
Marathon, a fantastic result against the best runners in Europe.
in MSIG HK 50K
in Chamonix with Mira Rai
Now Sunmaya is now training to be a full-time
mountain runner, and she is living for a while with Lloyd Belcher and his family in Malaysia – Lloyd’s
daughter Anya is teaching her English.
It is an honour to invite Sunmaya as an elite
runner to Gaoligong by UTMB!
BY Lloyd Belcher
zhanglin
| 2018-01-26 18:00
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