First-ever international edition of the locally hatched endurance race to welcome the participation of athletes of all genders in 2026.

Qatar’s toughest endurance race, the Samla, will be open for international participants from 2026, its organising committee announced on Monday.

Set to be hosted on January 24 next year, the first edition of Samla International Challenge will combine swimming, running, cycling and kayaking over 100 kilometres.

Azzam Al-Mannai, the CEO of the organising committee and Abdulaziz Al-Mawlawi, CEO of the country’s tourism promotion wing Visit Qatar, penned an agreement to finalise the details of the race.

“This race deserves to be at the forefront of the international stage,” Al-Mawlawi said in a press conference organised to mark the signing ceremony.

“We wanted to take this international for a long time, especially after it started to draw attention from some of the world-renowned athletes. We started coordinating with [Samla’s] organising committee, and now we are here.”

First held in 2017, Shamla is a local take on endurance racing, incorporating local Qatari desert elements. Only Qatari men were eligible to participate until 2024.

Its latest edition included six stages: swimming, running, kayaking, cycling, and off-road running over the course of 200 kilometres.

Starting from Sealine, the race in 2026 will feature three kilometres of swimming, 49 kilometres of running, 44 kilometres of cycling and four kilometres of kayaking — a slight change to its six-stage race held in December last year. Similarly, the cumulative prize pool will exceed a million riyals ($300,000), divided across both men’s and women’s categories.

Al-Mannai had exclusively told Doha News in December that talks with Visit Qatar were in the final stages to take the endurance race international.

“It [Samla] has evolved into a resolute platform that has nurtured a local base of athletes in endurance racing,” Al Mannai said. “Now, Samla will constitute a pillar of development in Qatar.”

Samla will now have two events, with the local-only race likely to continue alongside the new international race, Al-Mannai later told Doha News.

Initially hatched to nurture a local base of athletes in endurance racing, opening the competition to international athletes will make it one of the best races of its kind in the region, Al-Mannai added.

The partnership with Visit Qatar will see Samla get included in Visit Qatar’s event-studded calendar, which includes the likes of MotoGP Grand Prix of Qatar, F1 Qatar Grand Prix, the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the FIFA Arab Cup, among other famed sporting and cultural events.