June:
coming soon
May:
Lots of action all over the world
At the famous stair ultra in Radebeul,
Germany 20 climbers virtually conquered the Mt. Everest. In a dramatic
men´s race home boy Heiko Lätsch
reached the top in under 17 hours - the only lady reaching the top within
the 24 hour time limit was Susan Bateman
from UAE.
A week later still in Germany at Stuttgart´s TV tower nobody was
faster than Thomas Dold
and Anette Hartmann. This
was the second race of the new Run2Sky series with many international
starters.
Midmonth we had two climbs in Texas - Houston and Dallas and a race
in gambling city Reno. In Houston it was all Mexico with Javier
Santiago and Sandra Nunez
dominating.
On the 17th some of the world´s best climbers came to Taipei -
at the famous Taipei 101 the winning couple was the same as in New York
in february. Fastest lady Suzy Walsham
taking the lead in the World Cup from Cindy Harris;
in the men´s race another time Thomas
Dold was faster at the top than Marco
de Gasperi.
Back in Europe on the 21st there was the first race of the Czech Run
Up Series in Ostrava. The men´s race saw three experienced climbers
in front, Tomas Celko
5 seconds faster then Pavel Holec and another
5 behind Tomas Klisz. Fastest lady young
Libuse Horackova.
On the 23rd we had the Firefighter Vertical Challenge at the highest
building of the Southern hemisphere, Auckland´s famous Sky Tower
- initiated and organized by Tony ( and Paula ) Scott.
The following sunday there was the highest European indoor climb at
the MesseTurm in Frankfurt; on one side a charity event for arque, on
the other side part of Run2Sky. There was a fantastic new race record
by Thomas Dold - he needed
just 6:36 for 1344 stairs and 222 meters altitude. Runner up and sub7
too Matthias Jahn who has won the first
two editions of this race. Third on the podium Tomas
Celko just three days after his Ostrava win. Two Germans in front
at the Lady´s too - winner young Marie-Fee
Breyer so taking the lead at Run2Sky followed by Anette
Hartmann. Third Italian Cristina Bonacina
- like Thomas Dold just one week after
racing Taipei !
On May 29 there was another German win by Matthias
Jahn at Dubai´s Vertical Marathon - fastest Lady
Amanda Nimon Peters from
Australia.
In the German town of Augsburg better known for the first race in a
historical building ( Perlachturmlauf in October ) we had home wins
by Fabian Böck and
Christine Pußl.
April:
Canada and USA
This is the traditional month for most of the Canadian
races including thousands climbing Toronto´s CN Tower and the
two competitions at Calgary Tower.
Remarkable Atlanta´s overall winners from the masters division
Kim Chapman (49) and
Meredith Nelson (41);
Miami saw clear winners in Chad Kreiley
and Elisabeth Rhodes.
At L.A.s Climb California the fastest climbers were from far away -
Colorado´s Michelle Blessing
and the top three malesJesse Berg
from Chicago, Mexico´s Javier Santiago
and Raw Runner Tim van Orden travelling
over from the East. In Albany we had a more than convincing victory
for David Tromp and just
one other male faster than Lorie Boots
!
March:
24 races have been staged - among them 20 were within the USA
First to Europe: Though home of many elite climbers
with Milano´s Vertical Sprint there is just one race in Italy
- this year´s 3rd edition was won by Daniela
Vasalli and Marco de Gasperi.
We had two premier events, a sprint race in Essen, Germany and finally
stair action in the UK with the 1st Vertical Rush with charity background
in London´s Tower 42. Fastest climber Germany´s Matthias
Jahn beating British mountain runner Andy
Symonds and the experienced Austrian Rolf
Majcen. Fastest Lady was Irish runner Caitriona
Jennings.
At the Towerthon Challenge in Kuala Lumpur Malaysian females and Kenyan
males dominated the stairs and we saw a return of Portugal´s Macao
living Pedro Ribeiro.
Among the many US races were interesting newcomers like another race
in New York to the top of Rockefeller Center, in Dallas the first Texan
event and especially the first Climb Chicago. At this another spectacular
event in the "Windy City" especially the longest variant including
climbing all four Presidential Towers attracted many famous stair racers.
With Christopher
Schmidt and Jennifer Carder
the athletes clocking the fastest fourth climb had the fastest overall
time too beating strong competitors like Jesse
Berg, Dave Shafron, Jean
Francois Harvey, Eric Leninger,
Hal and Bridget Carlson,
Jennifer Glenn to name some. On the traditional
side the Big Climb Seattle was held for the 23rd time. Like Chicago
Seattle has already set a mark in stairing history ! And a promise for
the future is 19 year old snow shoe racer and mountain runner Shaun
Stevens-Whale from British Columbia who set a new record
at the Big Climb. Fastest Lady home climber Kourtney
Dexter.
February
is towerrunning month
Traditionally on the first tuesday
in February New York saw the most prestigious stairing event - the 32rd
Annual Empire State Building Run Up. Selected
runners from many different countries climbed the 1576 stairs from the
lobby to the observation deck in 86th floor. Suzy
Walsham and
Thomas Dold defended their titles
( result
). While Germany´s Thomas
Dold took the lead from the start into the stairwell to climb
to a convincing fourth straight win over Marco
de Gasperi and Rickey Gates the
Lady´s race offered more drama. Suzy Walsham
had to recover from a fall at the mass start but still managed to reach
the top as first for her third straight win with runners up Daniela
Vassalli and ESB Queen Cindy Harris.
Italy not only had both runners up but the oldest male climber too -
Piero Dettin a retired manager from Venice
who has participated in many climbs around the world and still is faster
than many much younger climbers.
Five days later Climb
Oakbrook Terrace saw a strong elite field participating in the triple
climb. While Jesse Berg clocked the fastest
time of the day Eric Leninger was the convincing
winner of the triple climb.These two, Krzysztof
Bak and Dave Shafron were the only
males faster then Jennifer Carder dominating
the Lady´s race with the fastest three female times. Impressive
five days after climbing ESB age group winner Hal
Carlson.
Though most of this month´s races
were staged in America there was action on the stairs in Europe too.
The new Run2Sky-Europe series started in Switzerland with Basel´s
Tower-Running on Feb 21. Local hero Gabriel
Lombriser narrowingly defeated Thomas
Dold and another fast German Christian
Riedl. Fastest Lady in Basel was Claudia
Riem from Lugano five
seconds before young talent Marie-Fee Breyer
. The Stratosphere Tower in famous gambling city
Las Vegas saw the inaugural Scale the Strat with a qualifying climb
on friday and the final climb on saturday. Three climbers dominated
the event: Fastest in the final was Zach
Schade followed by Eric
Leninger and Mexican Javier Santiago
who clocked the fastest qualifying time. Lady´s winner and 12th
overall was local Courtney Swenson.
On the same weekend half across the continent
we saw Eric Leninger again. With
two climbs up the Strat in his feet he still managed to climb to fourth
place at the "Hustle" in Chicago - congratulations ! On the
podium three very experienced climbers, winner Terry
Purcell followed by Christopher
Schmidt and Jesse Berg. Fastest
Lady once again Cindy Harris
who won by a seven second margin before Jennifer
Carder. And she beat her husband James by 1:27 ! Elsewhere in
the country Rickey Gates
had a convincing win at "Run the Republic" in his home state.
Special
mention to Chris Solarz
- he won three climbs in February ! At Race up Boston Place, Wawa´s
in Philadelphia and the new event in Providence no one was faster. And
that after a record performance in the New York Subway system at the
end of January when together with a friend he travelled all 468 stations
within 22 hours and 51 minutes - Wow !
January
- what happened ?
Traditionally the new
year started in Germany with Berlin´s Towerrun and the Hochhauslauf
in Leipzig. Followed by two other established events in the United States
- the "Bop" in Indianapolis and "Step up for Kids"
at Chicago´s AON Center. A new race in Minneapolis followed on
January´s last day.
