Japan’s Takuro Kumagai and Austria’s Michaela Punz-Raml were crowned the overall men’s and women’s champions of the Namib Race 2026 after a gruelling six-stage ultramarathon across Namibia’s ancient desert landscape.
The race, which started on 16 August at Camp 1 near the Walvis Bay Salt Pans, attracted 128 competitors from 37 countries, ranging in age from under 20 to 73. Around 30 percent of the field were women, while 65 percent had previous experience in the event.
Part of the RacingThePlanet 4 Deserts Ultramarathon Series, the race covered more than 240 kilometres of salt pans, dunes, rocky terrain and desert valleys before finishing on the Atlantic coast near Tiger Reef Bar in Swakopmund on Saturday. Five competitors also continued their pursuit of the 4 Deserts Grand Slam, which requires completing all four RacingThePlanet races within 12 months.
The Grand Slam runners were Benmaad, Norway’s Odd Edøy, Spain’s Fernando Llopis, Colombia’s Margarita Moreno and Mexico’s Stephen Patton. The event also celebrated new 4 Deserts Club inductees Olivia Chiu, James Crowe, Adriana Dulic and Seijin Oh, who completed all four races in the series.
RacingThePlanet expressed its appreciation to the people of Namibia, local staff, volunteers, medical teams and media crews who contributed to the successful staging of the event. The next race in the series, The Last Desert in Antarctica, is scheduled to begin on 13 November 2026.
Namib Race 2026 Top Results
Overall Champion: Takuro Kumagai, Japan
Women’s Champion: Michaela Punz-Raml, Austria
Men’s Second: Paul Redbourn, United Kingdom
Men’s Third: Koichi Kawakami, Japan
Women’s Second: Sara Schütze, Germany
Women’s Third: Samah Benmaad, France
Official Team: Team Taiwan A
Group Team: JustRunEat, South Korea
Sportsmanship Award: Katy Ketchum-Smit
Spirit Award: Team A☆H☆O-beyonD-
By Rudi Bowe
