Towerrunning World Cup final – Bogota 2012

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This is an official press release.

For stair climbing enthusiasts December 8th is a holiday. It is the day of one of the biggest stair climbing festival in the world – the official Towerrunning World Cup final. In Colombian capital Bogota the Carrera Ascenso Torre Colpatria provides a perfect frame to celebrate the Towerrunning sport and the World Cup champions.

The climatic conditions and the high altitude of the venue make the 980 stairs in Colombia’s highest skyscraper a special challenge. With a perfect race organization, intensive media coverage, attractive prizes as well as a special invitation program for elite the Carrera Ascenso Torre Colpatria belongs to the most coveted Towerrunning events worldwide. The race is one of only four factor 2.5 World Cup races and can be mentioned in the same breath as the legendary Empire State Building Run Up, the Taipei 101 Run Up and the SkyRun MesseTurm Frankfurt.

In 2010 and 2011 dramatic decisions took place in Bogota. Two years ago World Cup champion Thomas Dold had to retire after two thirds of the race when being completely exhausted. Last year we saw a thrilling battle of the three leading female athletes and a not less impressive medal fight in the men’s division. Despite the outstanding field occupation so far no foreign stair climber was able to beat the Colombian athletes in Bogota. This circumstance contributes to the special myth of the World Cup final.
189 towers, skyscrapers and outdoors stairs have already been climbed by Towerrunning athletes in 2012. This year again more than 100,000 participants were inspired by the fascination of stairs races. The Towerrunning World Cup unites all these races in one ranking to determine the best stair climbers throughout the entire season. While the ranking for male athletes is dominated by seven European athletes, who won stair climbs all over the world, the women’s World Cup decision already has fallen. Singapore-living Australian Suzanne Walsham finished all her races on the podium and won 8 of her 9 season events. She scored 1380,0 World Cup points and thereby set a new record. Behind her US athlete Kristin Frey secured the silver medal with 1138,0 points. Currently third-placed Italian Cristina Bonacina (884,0), who cannot take part in the Bogota final for health reasons, can be caught up by Cindy Harris (USA, 754,0). The World Cup silver medallist of 2011 needs to become third in Bogota to take over the Bronze medal rank from defending champion Bonacina.

In the men’s category the race will be even more exciting. Five of the seven leading athletes join the final race and fight for the medals. The World Cup title is almost secure for German Thomas Dold, who won all three editions of Towerrunning World Cup since its introduction in 2009. This year Dold climbed six races, won five of them – including the Empire State Building Run Up and the European Championships in Frankfurt – and scored 1158,0 points. Runner-up Piotr Lobodzinski (POL, 1001,0 points) still has a small chance to win his first World Cup title. If he manages to win the difficult race in Bogota as the first foreign athlete he would be the 2012 World Cup champion. Behind Dold and Lobodzinski five other athletes fight for the medals. Current third-placed Omar Bekkali (BEL, 954,0), who finished second in Singapore two weeks ago, is absent in Bogota and can therefore easily be overtaken by Bogota participants Tomas Celko (SVK, 948,0), Bartosz Swiatkowski (POL, 911,0), Christian Riedl (GER, 901,2) and Fabio Ruga (ITA, 883,0).

Besides the elite stair climbers thousands of children and amateur athletes line up at the start to climb the tallest skyscraper of Colombia. After the race in Bogota the World Cup trophies and medals will be awarded to the leading athletes by Towerrunning president Michael Reichetzeder. Valuable prizes (cars and cash prizes) wait for the winners of the World Cup final.

After the event in Bogota there will be no winter break. On December 9th the 2013 World Cup season starts in Chicago and Guadalajara. On December 15th a new country joins the Towerrunning family. Then the first race in Croatia will be staged. A novel ranking format will be introduced by the newly founded Towerrunning World Association to crown the champions on stairs in 2013 again.

Towerrunning, top 20, 6th December 2012

Towerrunning, top 20, 6th December 2012

 

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