May 20 - Dates of Masters Races               Overview      Avaz Tower Running registration open

SkyRun MesseTurm Frankfurt 2.5 May 26 registration
UFO Vertical Sprint Bratislava 1.5 June 16 registration
Avaz Tower Running Sarajevo1,5 Jun 22 info registration
Praha Run Up 1.5 Jun 28 registration
Millennium Tower Run Up Vienna 2,0 Aug 31 registration                        
Hanoi Vertical Run 1.5 Sep 16 registration  
Stair Climb for Los Angeles 1,5 Sep 27
SkyRise Chicago 1.5 Nov 3
Eureka Climb Melbourne 1.5 Nov 17
Singapore Vertical Marathon 1.5 Nov 24
Ascenso Torre Colpatria Bogota 2.0 Dec 8

European Outdoor Season Start: May 10-11
Defending champion Christian Riedl in 8:14 and Claudia Waidelich in 11:37 were the home winners at the Stäffeleslauf in Bad Wildbad (GER)  on May 10 climbing up 1987 stairs along the Sommerbergbahn. This longest German outdoor climb has been held seven times so far. On the same day ( or better night ) near Slowenia´s capital Maribor in an atmospheric night event Matjaž Mikloša with a new course record of 1:45 and Karmen Klancnik in 2:38 were the fastest up the steep 455 stairs up Kalvarijo.
On May 11 not far away in Austria winter stroke back and on race morning the 2nd edition of Reißeck Wadlbeißer had to be cancelled. With icy stairs, snow and zero temperaturs in heights over 2000 m altitude security could not be guaranteed. In an inofficial climb up the lower parts of the track Daniel Ackermann (SUI) looked very good at his comeback ! Race will be moved to autumn - detailed info soon !

May 5 - Taipei 101 Run Up                          gallery coming         Presentation
         
The defending Champions did it again ! Italian Valentina Belotti won the female race with a time of 12:54 beating her compatriote Antonella Confortola who needed 14:09 for the 2046 stairs. Tight third was Melissa Moon (NZL) in 14:11.

Australian Mark Bourne defended his title in 10:52. He was exact 20 seconds faster than runner up Piotr Lobodszinski from Poland. The podium was completed by Christian Riedl (GER) in 11:50. Fourth just three seconds behind Emanuele Manzi (ITA)  followed by Sproule Love (USA) and Belgian Omar Bekkali.

April  20-21 - Mount Everest Stair Marathon         

This is the Ultra on stairs - the athletes have 24 hours to climb the Spitzhaustreppe in Radebeul near Dresden a 100 times up and down such virtually reaching the height of Mt. Everest ( 8848m ), overcoming 39700 stairs up and down and covering a distance of 84,39 km ( double marathon ).
In a dramatic race Heiko Lätsch from Dresden repeated his win from 2009 in 14:46:09 just a little bit more than 2 minutes faster than compatriote Frank Wittwer .Only 20 minutes later the Swiss winner of 2010 and 2011, Marco Summermatter, finished the 100 rounds. In the female race Kristina Tille set a course record with 17:30:22. This year 2 females and 26 males finished the whole distance in time !

April  20 - Climb for Wilderness         

The other Ultra event of the weekend was staged in Calgary. For the 22nd time athletes climbed Calgary Tower as often as they could within 5 hours to support the Alberta Wilderness Association. Superior once again Jonathan Heinz  who climbed up 29 times plus another one within the Run for Wilderness which he won too !

April  6 - Dubai Vertical Marathon          Gallery

Office Tower - the higher of the two Jumeirah Emirates Towers was the venue of the 11th Vertivcal Marathon in Dubai. A very mixed field of stair enthusiasts lined up before the building early in the morning to climb to the top, Among the 200 competitors were international elite climbers as well as sportive members of Dubai´s international community and inhabitants of various Emirates.

The female race was taken with a big margin by defending champion Martha Rise from Norway. With 9:55 she clocked the first sub10 time since record holder Petra Jerejian (CZE) in 2008. Runner up was Lenka Svabikova (CZE) and third Frederique Idri from France. Climbers from four continents and 9 countries were among the Top10 !

A big surprise was the outcome of the male race. He races since last year and after some good results within the last months he took Dubai by storm - Görge Heimann from Germany. 8:09 are course record too. Despite impressive 8:14 the climber with by far most international starts and wins - Rolf Majcen from Austria - like 2010 had to be content with a runner up finish. The podium was completed by another German. Matthias Jahn celebrated a successful comeback after many months of unwanted race abstinence. In 8:36 he missed his winning time of 2009 by just one second.

April 6 - Taipei 101 Run Up on May 5th - Registration Information      

The website of Taipei Run Up 2013 will be online on April 8th 4:00 p.m. Taiwan time. Registration period is only one week ! International climbers can preregister for the 101 slots of elite division - for mail address please contact office@towerrunning.com !

9th Taipei 101 Run Up 2013:

Date: 2013-05-05 (Sunday)
Time: starting on 7:00 am
Place: Taipei 101 ground floor- 91th floor
Prices: Winner for 200,000 NTD, second place for 100,000 NTD, third place for 80,000 NTD...
Division: Men and Women Elite division, amateur division, company division, challenging division
Qualification standards for Elite division: previous times at Taipei 101, marathon times, half marathon times, triathlon results

April 4 - Dates of Masters Races               Taipei confirmed , Sarajevo

Taipei 101 Run Up 2.0 May 5
SkyRun MesseTurm Frankfurt 2.5 May 26
Avaz Towerrunning Sarajevo1,5 Jun 22 - to be confirmed soon
Praha Run Up 1.5 Jun 28
Millennium Tower Run Up Vienna 2,0 Aug 31                                              
Hanoi Vertical Run 1.5 Sep 16
Stair Climb for Los Angeles 1,5 Sep 27
SkyRise Chicago 1.5 Nov 3
Eureka Climb Melbourne 1.5 Nov 17                                                            
Singapore Vertical Marathon 1.5 Nov 10 or Nov 24
Ascenso Torre Colpatria Bogota 2.0 Dec 8

Replacement race for Milano to be elected soon

March 16 - Czech Run-Up Series       

The dates of the Czech Run-Up Series are in: Plzen (BCB, May 17), Ostrava (New Town Hall, June 14),  Praha (City Empiria, June 28 - Masters Race 1,5), Liberec (Regional Office, August 9), Olomouc (RCO Tower, September 20 ), Praha (Tower Park, September 27 - Final ). More info following !

March 13 - Fight For Air Climb Presidential Towers Chicago      

For the 5th time in 2013 this event with an exclusive race mode was held. from the 1000+ participants overall more than 800 chose the hardest challenge - the four tower climb. Rest is only when waiting for the escalator down. Justin Stewart ( 15:22 ) was the winner beating Jesse Berg ( 15:36 ) and John Osborn ( 17:04 ). World class participation on the female side too where Kristin Frey ( 18:31 5th fastest time overall )  beat Roxanne Sanchez by two minutes.

March 9 - Bieg Na Szczyt Rondo 1         Gallery    Poster

"Bieg Na Szczyt" means "Race to the Top" and at its third edition this stair race held at Rondo 1 in the Polish capital Warsaw has really arrived among the top events worldwide. Besides invited international elite climbers the 500 slots available at online registration were sold within one hour ! Athletes have to climb 836 stairs from the lobby of this office building until the finish line at the 37th floor. Race mode is time trial with a 15 second interval and the 12 fastest climbers of each gender qualify for the final round which is held in pursuit mode. In contrary to the first two the start of this year´s event could not be outside the building due to a big construction zone around. But on this cold winter day when the town was powdered with fresh fallen snow nobody was unhappy about it. Except one all race facilities were indoors, just to get a (free) hot coffee participants, visitors and staff had to walk a few meters out to the coffee wagon !

Shortly before 10 a.m. the athletes of  the first wave were called by name for receiving their chip and to line up at the start gate. Live monitoring on some screens in the lobbykept runners and spectators up to date. One camera was situated at 10th floor where an intermediate time was clocked. As one of the race sponsors has set prices for the fastest at this point some athletes focused on this "sprint" distance within the race. Fastest at this point was Radoslaw Majowski who in contrary to his female counterpart Alicja Luba couldn´t qualify for the pursuit heat.

After a well deserved break the athletes with the 12 fastest qualification times and the six fastest 40+ runners were called to line up for the final heats in order of their qualification rank. Start interval now was the time difference to the climber before - the classical pursuit mode used in many other World Cup races of different sports. The female race saw an took an undisputed win by mountain runner Izabela Zatorska beating Dominika Wisniewska-Ulfik and Anna Ficner for a complete home podium. Best foreign climber was Lenka Svabikova (CZE) on fourth place nearly catching the defending champion Ficner. It was the second win for Zatorska at Rondo 1 !

For the male race all the signs were for a tight decision as the top 3 of the first round were clearly before the others. It culminated in an exciting photo finish in which Bartosz Swiatkowski had the better end 0,11 seconds before compatriote Piotr Lobodszinski. Only 1,49 seconds behind the winner Christian Riedl from Germany took the only podium place of a foreign climber. During the race Swiatkowski had a more comfortable lead but finally had to use all his will power to hold a coming Lobodzinski at distance. Behind them Riedl had a strong finish too but was without any chance to attack the Poles. Defending champion Fabio Ruga from Italy was undisputed fourth. Among the Top8 there was just one change of rank In comparison to the pursuit start order as Stefan Stefina from Slowakia overtook Omar Bekkali from Belgium.

The 500 athletes including 18 Firefighters and many spectators enjoyed a great event which ended by playing the national anthem for the Polish winners Izabela Zatorska and Bartosz Swiatkowski.

March 6 - Scale The Strat Las Vegas        US National Championships 2013  Gallery

March 4 - Towerrunning Basel            Gallery         Gallery Firefighters        Poster

In Basel the first European Masters Races of the 2013 season welcomed almost 700 stair runners from 13 nations.Many of the world’s leading Tower runners were at the start to conquer the iconic Messeturm, the second-highest building of Switzerland. 5 of the top 7 male World Cup athletes joined the well organized event and 4 of the female top 20 made a stop in Basel as well.

The elite race saw a thrilling competition. Germany’s Christian Riedl, defending champion and World Cup bronze medalist, was the first of the leading athletes, who had to master the 542 stairs to the bar in the 31st floor of the Messeturm. With a time of 2:39.8 minutes he was almost 4 seconds slower than his own course record. Piotr Lobodzinski from Poland took the opportunity and undercut Riedl’s time by 3.6 seconds. With a 2:36.2 he missed the course record by only 20 hundredths of a second. Compatriot Bartosz Swiatkowski, clocking a 2:36.7, completed the Polish one-two finish. Italian’s Fabio Ruga (2:37.8) secured the last position on the podium. Riedl became 4th, followed by Omar Bekkali (BEL, 2:50.6) and Jan Wilker (GER, 2:50.8) who won the Men’s open category. Enrico Gäbe, leader of the Towerrunning Germany series, finished 9th in 2:55.5. Remarkably even fourth placed Christian Riedl was faster than Thomas Dold’s personal best from 2009, which underlines the extraordinary competitivenes of the race.

In the women's event World Cup champion Suzanne Walsham from Australia improved her own course record by 1.4 seconds and celebrated another undisputed victory. With a time of 3:10.0 minutes she was clearly ahead of Cornelia Schindler (GER, 3.26.2) and double race winner Marie-Fee Breyer (GER, 3:31.7). Lenka Svabikova from Czech Republic (3:40.9) became fourth. The winners of the elite category each won a prize money of CHF 250 and Suzy Walsham additionally received a track record premium of 500 francs.

With the 160 points for his victory in Basel Piotr Lobodzinski (1093.0 points) took the lead in the Towerrunning World Cup rankings. One week before his home race in Warsaw he is 121.5 points ahead of Bartosz Swiatkowski (971.5) and Tomas Celko (SVK, 904.0). Omar Bekkali is ranked fourth (902.0), followed by Thomas Dold and Jesse Berg. Newly crowned US Champion Sproule Love entered the top 10 for the first time. Suzanne Walsham still has a comfortable lead in the women’s division.

Besides the World Cup competition Towerrunning Basel also hosted Europe’s leading fire-fighter stair race. In the elite category, where the participants had to master the tower with complete fire protection equipment and attached respirator, the fire brigade Frick (SUI, 5:13.4) celebrated a narrow victory over the team from Strasbourg (FRA, 5:14.3). The third place went to SIS Geneva (SUI, 5:23.3). David Robles Tapia (ESP) won the individual fire-fighter category in 4:28.8 just minutes after clocking the 7th best time in the elite competition before.

February 25 -  USA National Championships

The upcoming Masters Race up the spectacular Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas marks an important milestone in the story of Towerrunning in the USA. Within the traditional American Lung Association fundraiser Scale The Strat held for the 5th time on March 2 the first ever USA National Championships are staged.

Patronized by the USA Stairclimbing Association  the Top50 US females and males of the 2012 season are challenged to crown national champions. Athletes participating in the Nationals will race the iconic tower before all other climbers. In contrary to former years the "Strat" will be a one day - one heat race this year.

Another novelty is the introduction of a US ranking for towerrunners in 2013. Principally every climb might be considered for the ranking but sorted to seven geographical zones some major races are preselected. An athletes score will be comprised of a maximum of five events throughout the year. The most valuable event of the US circuit naturally will be the Championships in Las Vegas. Here you can see the Top10 Females and Males   as of February 19 ( Note: the "Hustle" weekend races are not included so far ) !

February 25 -  World Cup Splits and Masters Races News

The majority of the 14 races from last weekend was held in the US confirming the words "February is Towerrunning month". The climbs in Chicago, Denver and Omaha had four-digit numbers of participants.

The 1st Skyrun Duna Tower in Budapest which is the first of a series marks the entry of Hungary into the Towerrunning family

In the days between March 2nd and March 9th we will have four Masters Races:

On Saturday March 2 there are Scale The Strat in Las Vegas and Towerrunning Basel
Midweek on Tuesday we have Vertical Rush in London
The Masters week ends Saturday March 9 in Warsaw with Bieg Na Szczyt Rondo 1

The much requested date of Taipei 101 Run Up will be MAY 5 - CTRRA finally confirms this !
Online registration for SkyRun MesseTurm Frankfurt   ( MAY 26 ) will open on MAR 11    - date changed !

February 25 - Hustle Up The Hancock       Gallery

Nearly 3000 climbers conquered the John Hancock Building in Chicago participating in the second Masters Race of the season on US grounds. Many leading American elite athletes used the 1632 stairs and 94 floors of the "Hustle" as a last chance to form validation one week before the first ever Nationals in Las Vegas.

In the female race we saw another Chicago win of Kristin Frey in 11:55,4. Runner Up was Cindy Harris (12:08,7) still holding the course record with 10:51,6 in 2008. Third on the podium Sherrie Breese who needed 12:32,6 to the top.

New record in the male competition. New Yorker Sproule Love managed a 9:23,5 holding defending champion Justin Stewart on distance whose 9:33,3 meant a personal record. With a time of 10:11,9 Jesse Berg added yet another podium place to his long "Hustle"-story.

February 16 - Thomas Dold wins the "Torch Staircase Run" Doha        Gallery

With Qatar today the 31st country joined the Towerrunning family. For the first time World Cup points have been awarded in the emirate on the East Coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The 300-metre tall Aspire Tower in the Doha Sports City (also known as Torch Tower) which has served as the focal point for the 15th Asian Games in December 2006 hosted the Torch Staircase Run as an international Towerrunning competition with elite participants.

Ten days after he retired from his start in New York defending World Cup champion Thomas Dold (GER) won the race with a new track record (6:31 minutes). He was followed by Omar Bekkali (BEL, 6:52) and Rolf Majcen (AUT, 7:12). Fastest Lady was Elizabeth Cothran Isom (USA, 9:25). The run involved 1304 stairs across 51 floors to the top of the Torch building.

The Torch-Doha Hotel Staircase Run was organized in partnership between Aspire Logistics and The Torch-Doha Hotel. For spectators a comprehensive family entertainment program was provided. The well organized event was a nice get-together between Quatar inhabitants and the international community. It was honored by the participation of Minister of Justice, Hasan bin Abdullah al-Ghanem who said “You know we are always using the elevator, but it’s a good idea to use the staircase”. Wise words.

February 11 -  World Cup Ranking

As four of six ESBRU podium positions went to the Australian team, “Down Under” for the first time in the World Cup history took the lead in the Nations Cup ranking. Germany dropped back from the top to rank 3. The same applies to Thomas Dold in the men’s individual ranking. Piotr Lobodzinski, who did not compete in New York took the lead in the revolving ranking system including almost 200 races all over the world. Only 11 points behind Tomas Celko (SVK) now is on the silver position. Dold has a chance to shorten the gap or even take the lead again at his next race in Doha, where the Towerrunning World Cup stops for the first time. Suzanne Walsham extended her lead in the women’s ranking and again improved her own score record to 1440 points. With Kristin Frey and Cindy Harris two US climbers follow on ranks 2 and 3.

The factor of Vertical Rush ( MAR 5 ) has been reduced to 1,5
Online registration for SkyRun MesseTurm Frankfurt   ( MAY 26 ) opens on MAR 11
The definite date of Taipei 101 Run Up is still unknown - it will be in May or June

February 7 - 36th Empire State Building Run Up New York              Video        all winners     Gallery

Australian athletes ruled the 36th edition of the prestigious Empire State Building Run Up. Like last year it was a wednesday night race in which some selected elite athletes challenged each other in the mass start heats whereas the majority of participants had to climb in time trial mode in a partially crowded stairwell. A tradition which was continued is that some applications of promising elite athletes had been rejected. It´s a pity - but this is ESBRU.

In the female invitational division nine athletes were lined up for the start which is traditionally five minutes before the male race. In the short body conscious sprint from the starting grid into the small stairwell Kristin Frey stumbled but managed to remain on her feet. Fastest on top was Suzanne Walsham clocking 12:05 which secured not only her 4th win at Empire but was the fastest time for many years. Surprisingly Brooke Logan completed an Australian double with 12:48 followed by US climbers Erika Aklufi, Kristin Frey and ESBRU legend Cindy Harris in 13:44. So the four time champion ( between 1998 and 2003 ) was 33 seconds faster than at her first win. Sixth place went to Darbi Roberts who was the fastest from the individual climb. Remarkably a strong performance from Mary Wittenberg, CEO and President of the organizing New York Road Runners Club !
In the male elite invitational heat 20 athletes lined up. There should have been 21, but unfortunately the defending seven time champion Thomas Dold from Germany had to retire on short notice due to a flu and fever. Sadly he had to witness from the outside how the race was won by Mark Bourne in 10:12. After a conservative start he took the lead lately but had left more energy in the final stories and held compatriote Darren Wilson (10:45) at distance. In the final result it was no Aussie double because as it turned out later Norvegian mountain runner Thorbjoern Ludvigsen (10:39) marked the second fastest time of the day - he raced in the individual time trial and was not honored in the victory ceremony. Best US athlete on 4th mountain runner Rickey Gates who climbed the 1576 stairs in 11:01 followed by another Norvegian Eirik Haugsnes and Tomas Celko (SVK).  ESBRU is a special race where you never know. Among the elite athletes who were not happy with their performance on this daywere Christian Riedl (GER) and Omar Bekkali (BEL) - both had been runner up to Dold in past years.

More than 700 made their mark in the result lists. An interesting historical fact is that still all the winners come from only five nations ( Austria, Australia, Germany, New Zealand and USA ). And we have now 10 years without a home champion - since Cindy Moll ( now Harris ) 2003 !

January 26 - 3rd Corrida Vertical Sao Paulo  

Fabio Ruga defeats World Cup champion Thomas Dold in Sao Paulo

Since 2012 the Brazilian 11 million metropolis Sao Paulo is the venue of the first international Masters Race of the Towerrunning season. The Corrida Vertical again invited leading elite athletes to the event in the 149 m high Novo Edificio Abril and some of the world’s best stair runners joined the race.

In Sao Paulo the young season saw the first big sensation: Fabio Ruga (ITA) won the Corrida Vertical by climbing the 649 stairs in 3 minutes and 4 seconds. Current World Cup leader Thomas Dold (GER) needed two seconds more and therefore lost his second consecutive race after Taipei 2012. Omar Bekkali (BEL) became third in 3:16 minutes. Suzanne Walsham (AUS) as the only international female athlete in Sao Paulo celebrated an undisputed victory against the local participants after clocking a new track record of 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

Corrida Vertical in Sao Paulo also marked the final event of the 2012 Vertical World Circuit, which was won by the defending World Cup champions Suzanne Walsham and Thomas Dold too. Unfortunately due to inadequate information policy together with some strange changes of the date in the months before international participation was not as good as it should have been.

January 23 - 3rd Bieg na Szczyt Rondo 1, Warsaw on March 9th  

The event organization team and the Towerrunning World Association are proud to invite you to the third edition of Rondo 1 Run-up. The race will be one of the 19 Masters Races from all over the world and an important stage of the 2013 Towerrunning World Cup calendar. There are 38 floors and over 800 steps to be climbed and, as always, all monies raised from the registration fees go to SOS Children's Villages charity foundation.

The race will be held in two stages. In the first round all competitors climb the tower in an individual time trial setting. The fastest athletes conquer the tower again in the final. Then a pursuit / handicap start will be used according to the times of the first round.

There is prize money for the top 6 male and female athletes.
Foreign elite athletes are asked to contact Piotr Jakóbik - piotr@sportevolution.pl.Further information, rules and registration: http://www.biegnaszczyt.pl/en

Update: After less than one hour the 500 available spots were sold out ! Stay tuned - in about 7 to 10 days some additional slots will be available !

January 19 - 30th Bop to the Top   

Incredible Cindy Harris wins the Bop for the 19th in a row - in the individual climb she missed her 2001 record by just 5 seconds and all her heats in the triple were within 0,8 sec ! Overall she placed 8th (i) and 3rd (t) !

The other double champion who defended his 2012 titles in a very convincing manner was Justin Stewart from Springfield. Among the top ranked athletes in the male races were the Bop legends Marty Wilkey and Joseph Kenny and Cindy´s husband James.

January 13 - Masters Races 2013 selected  

By vote of the newly installed Towerrunning World Council 19 Masters Races have been selected for the 2013 season. 2 of them get the highest factor of 2.5, 5 get factor 2.0 and 12 get factor 1.5.

The eight European races are: SkyRun MesseTurm Frankfurt 2.5, Towerrunning Basel 2.0, Millennium Tower Run Up Vienna 2.0, Vertical Rush London 2.0, Big na Szczyt Rondo 1 Warsaw 1.5, Praha Run Up 1.5, Avaz Towerrunning Sarajevo 1.5 and Vertical Sprint Milan 1.5 .Substitutes are Stiegenlauf Business Park Vienna, Ostrava Run Up and Olomouc Run Up.

There are five races in North America: Empire State Building New York 2.5, SkyRise Chicago 1.5, Scale the Strat Las Vegas 1.5, Stair Climb for Los Angeles (US Bank Tower)1.5 and Hustle Up The Hancock Chicago 1.5 . Two are in South America: the traditional venue of the World Cup Final Ascenso Torre Colpatria Bogota 2.0 and Corrida Vertical Sao Paulo 1.5 . Elected as American subsitutes were Fight for Air Climb Chicago (Presidential Towers), Step Up For Kids Chicago and Fight for Air Climb Los Angeles.

From Asia/Oceania we have four races: Taipei 101 Run Up 2.0, Singapore Vertical Marathon 1.5, Eureka Climb Melbourne 1.5 and Hanoi Vertical Run 1.5 . Substitute is Dubai Vertical Marathon.