It’s that time of year ago before the adventure season kicks off where we are joined by Chris Timms to recap the highlights of 2025. In this special awards episode, we discuss the stories that moved us and the people who mattered. Here are the categories and nominees:
Male Athlete of the Year
Hisashi Kitamura, with his win at TMBT
Lodowijk Vriens, wins in HK and Bali and top 10 in Cape Town
John Stingray Onifa, with multiple wins across Asia
Guangfu Meng, 2nd win at HK100 and win at Chiang Mai by UTMB
Female Athlete of the Year
Sunmaya Budha, 2nd in WMTRC and an miraculous win in Cape Town
Hau Ha, another amazing year with wins in Tsiagu and Chiang Mai by UTMB
Fuzhao Xiang, 2nd place at Western States and wins across many shorter distances across Asia
Veronika Leng, 2nd place at HK100 on her comeback and 5th at CCC
Race / Challenge of the Year
World Trail Majors
Hong Kong 100
Vietnam Mountain Marathon
Asia Trail Masters
Penang Skyrace
Izu Trail Journey Japan
UTMB
TransLantau
Chiang Mai
Others
Tsaigu Trail
Godzone
Endurance Feat of the Year
Stone Tsang solo traverse across Taiwan
Grant “Axe” Rawlinson and Luke Richmond Row across “The Ditch”
Fundraising of the Year
Natalie Dau’s 2nd Project1000 across Philippines, fundraising for female charities across Asia
Jo Lodder and John Fan, 3100km UNBOUND ultra run from Beijing to China raising money for disabled charities
Listen to the episode to find out who the winners are..
We loved watching these people reset the limits of what’s possible in 2025 and would love to hear from you about who we missed. Here’s to even more amazing achievements in 2026!