Jeri Chua has been born and raised in Singapore. She began her sporting career as a triathlete. She was a member of the Singapore national team and was several times ”Ironman” (Ironwoman in this case!). She was the 1st woman of the country to take part into the world championship, the legendary Hawaii Ironman. After a break in the UK, she began to do trail running. She has finished many trails including the famous Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) and Tor the Giants. She is now back in Singapore where she works as a fashion editor. Jeri is endorsed by Salomon and Hammer Nutrition.
Janet Ng has been born and raised in Hong Kong. She is the director of the most popular Ultra trail race in Hong Kong. HK100 is part of the Ultra Trail World Tour which includes the largest ultra trails in the world. Janet has worked as a lawyer but quit her job to devote herself to sport, help blind riders to compete and organize the HK100 race. This year she has taken part into many race: Marathon des Sables and Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. She is eager to share his passion for trail and nature in this week’s race in Thailand.
Marc Fortier Beaulieu is 56 years old and has done triathlon on any kind of distances for 25 years. He has been six times “Ironman”. He’s engaged himself into trail running lately. He would love, as Sylvain Bazin does, to run the mythical long-distance trails in the world. Marc is a dermatologist doctore specializing in skin cancer and infectious diseases. He has also a particular and deep interest for theology and ethics.
Sylvain Bazin is a former track and field runner. After converting to Ultra and getting good results (winner of Lofoten Marathon in 2009, winner of the Ultra Trail Atlas in 2005 and 2007, 9th of the Annapurna Mandala Trail in 2008), he decided to run the world’s most famous footpaths. His “Trail World Tour” project started in 2012 has lead him from Saint-Jacques de Compostela (1950 k in 40 days) to the path of the 88 sacred temples in Japan (1350k). Before joining this project, he has just completed the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome (2000k).
Tarmo Vannas is a minimalist running / barefoot, raw vegan and fruitarian. For him the basic message is minimalism, ie “less is better” or “make it simple, stay simple”. He enjoys trail running especially for being close to nature and the options it offers to climb mountains, cross rivers, go deep into the jungle and enjoy magnificent sceneries. Tarmo started running in 2010 by doing marathons. He then has involved himself into trail running when he arrived in Chiang Mai in 2013. In one year he has joined many trail running race from 50k to 100k.
Sébastien Bertrand is the organizer of this crazy project. Competitive triathlete and trail runner he is also involved professionally in the outoor industry. After spending 8 years working for different brands as Product manager, he decided to explore the wild mountains of northern Thailand. Linking Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai is a personnal project that allowed him to discover deeper Thai nature and people. It is also a way to be a pioneer of trail running in this country and share this wonderful area with runners from all over the world.