Columbia Sportswear, the global outdoor performance brand, hosted the 2026 Mangar Trail Challenge on November 1 at Village Mangar in the Aravalis. As title sponsor, the brand brought together over 1,450 attendees, including 1,225 runners, along with their companions, spectators and other attendees. This marks a significant increase from approximately 900 attendees at the event’s first edition.
The event featured six race categories (5K, 10K, 21K, 30K, 50K and 75K) across different age groups and gender categories. It drew professional athletes, experienced trail runners and outdoor enthusiasts. The challenge was Columbia’s second major engagement in the trail-running event space, reinforcing its commitment to building a stronger presence in the segment in India.
Village Mangar offers a distinctive trail-running environment within accessible reach of the Delhi-NCR metropolitan region. The course featured a varied and moderately technical landscape, including mud, sand, water bodies, slush, gravel, rocky stretches, dense vegetation and thorny trails. The region’s biodiversity and ecological significance also added an environmental dimension to the event.
A central focus was the Columbia Konos Trillium ATR, the brand’s hero trail-running footwear product. The shoe featured prominently across event communications, branding and the race campus, and a dedicated demonstration booth gave attendees the chance to engage with the footwear and understand its application in trail-running conditions. The event also served as a platform to connect with established running communities and professional athletes, building aspiration and awareness around trail running as a growing outdoor category.
Race infrastructure included a main stage, podium, structured warm-up sessions, recovery and hydration stations, medical facilities, a footwear demo zone, lead-collection touchpoints and a gear display area.
Commenting on the event, Ankur Bhatia, CEO, Chogori India Retail Limited, said, “At Columbia, our commitment to the outdoors goes beyond creating performance products. It is also about enabling people to experience the outdoors and building communities around the activities they are passionate about. The Mangar Trail Challenge is an important platform in that direction. With 1,225 runners and building up to 1,450 attendees coming together this year, we are encouraged by the growing interest in trail running and the potential this category holds in India. Through initiatives like this, we aim to strengthen our connection with the running community and continue building Columbia’s presence in performance trail footwear.”
With the 2026 Mangar Trail Challenge, Columbia Sportswear continues to deepen its engagement with India’s outdoor and running communities, while raising awareness around trail running and performance-led footwear. The event reflects the brand’s larger ambition to build a stronger foothold in specialised outdoor categories and bring more people closer to the outdoors.
