Arjun Rai Kulung- Solukhumbu- Professional Athlete with TNF APA Team
Arjun finishing 50th in the 2nd World Mountain and Trail Running Championships 2023 held in Innsbruck, Austria
From Porter to an International Trail Runner
At Swayambhunath: Pic credits : MTBRocky
Arjun started running at 19 years old in his first race Everest marathon from where he steadily improved his rankings over the consecutive years until in 2021 he won the 60k category and repeated the same feat in 2022 as well.
“ We dropped our clients in Lukla and me and my elder brother made it to the Everest base camp the next day. My brother got tired and didn’t join the race. However, I was too excited and I entered for the race the same day and raced on my trekking boots as I had no running shoes then. I still made it top 10. That gave me confidence to race in other races too.”
His performance over the years in some of Nepal’s most challenging ultra races has been impressive where he won the 100 miler Kathmandu Valley rim ultra and Manjushree trail race.
The turning point of Arjun’s life was in November during the Manaslu Mountain stage trail race, where he broke the previous winner’s record by 2 hours. The Nepal trail series director was in the same race and recommended his profile to the North Face Adventure Team director Mr. Ryan Blair.
North Face Team Director signs Arjun Rai Kulung as their first Nepali athlete along with Sunmaya Budha who has been with the team since 2020.
Things have changed quickly for Arjun since Ryan Blair, signed him to the North Face Asia Pacific Adventure Team. This was the first time that a Nepali male athlete was signed with the team.
Earlier in 2020, athlete from Jumla Ms. Sunmaya Budha was also signed as a professional athlete with the team. She is currently World’s top 8th ultra runner for the 100 km race category and had a glorious 2nd rank just behind the French World Champion Blandine Horaldine in UTMB 2022 OCC 101 km race.
Nepal Trail Series manages both Sunmaya Budha and Arjun Rai Kulung as a local athlete managing partner for the North Face Asia Pacific Adventure Team. We want to provide professional opportunities to Nepali athletes and help to see them grow as world-class athletes from Nepal.