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!