towerrunning

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World Cup 2009: Top10 as of Jun 23 - Top70 vom 23. Juni Welt Cup 2009
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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.

 

 




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idea + research: Michael Reichetzeder
techn. realization: COMPU-CARE
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