Andrea Mayr recently caught up with Austrian website sportaktiv.com to talk about her career, attitude to training and plans for the future, and it’s a brilliant read.
The refreshingly open interview provides a great insight into the mindset of one of the greatest and most versatile athletes of all time.
Highlights include:
Her openness to a return to tower running
What motivates her after 20 years of top-class competition
Her non-professional approach to still competing at the top: “I’m doing this for fun. I no longer have a sponsor, I get zero funding, I don’t owe anyone anything, I have my job. I don’t have to read my name in the newspaper or in magazines. Honestly, I don’t need any of that.”
The Empire State Building Run-Up (ESBRU) was first held in 1978. Since then each race has been packed full of exciting moments, surprises and disappointments.
Here are five of our favourite Empire State Building Run-Up moments. Feel free to share yours in the comments below.
1979: Last to the lobby, first to the top
The second edition of the Empire State Building Run-Up took place at 10:30am on the morning of Thursday 15 February 1979.
At 9:40am the eventual winner was still sitting at the desk in his Manhattan office at 58th Street and Park Avenue, a mile-and-a-half from the Empire State Building.
Financial analyst Jim Rafferty had earned his invite to the ESBRU off the back of some solid road running performances in 1978. He was 25th at the New York Marathon in October and then in December he’d finished fourth in a 30km race organised by the New York Road Runners, the same organisers of the ESBRU.
Rafferty was one of just 20 men and four women that had been invited to the second edition of the new stair running event. But on the morning of the race he was in two minds about taking part. He was due to race in the Boston Marathon in April and was worried about picking up an injury in the unusual and novice event.
With less than an hour before the start, still sitting at his desk, he seemed to have settled on not running. But then he had a sudden change of heart.
‘I was worried about twisting an ankle on the stairs’, he said. ‘But then I thought it’d be a lot of fun. It’s not your everyday competitive event, you know.’
At 9.45am Rafferty asked his boss if he could have a couple of hours off, jumped in a cab and reached the building just before the start. You can see him on the far right in the picture above.
In the race, he took the lead fairly on and held it to the finish line, crossing it in a new record time of 12:19.
Eight weeks later Jim Rafferty set a personal best of 2:18.55 at the Boston Marathon.
Heading into the 1987 race, Al Waquie already had four ESBRU wins to his name.
Typically he’d have been a firm favourite for a fifth win on the trot. But a knee injury sustained in July 1986 had prevented him from running properly for seven months.
As he and others toed the line in the first of two waves at the 1987 ESBRU, nobody knew what sort of shape Waquie was in.
Alongside him was the emerging stair climbing star from Indianapolis, Joe Kenny, who had won the 1986 Bop to the Top in his home city, plus other stair races in the USA.
Despite getting a good start, Waquie was already struggling by the 20th floor. Kenny passed him at the first crossover and began to pull away, looking set to put an end to Waquie’s winning streak.
But Waquie had different ideas. He powered on, while up ahead Kenny and another climber began to fade. With 14 floors to go, Waquie finally caught up with them and showed them both exactly why he was a four-time champ.
‘He just blasted by me at the 72nd floor’, Joe Kenny said. ‘I think he stayed back at the start and saved his big move for the end. He really knows those stairs’.
Waquie’s gutsy fifth win would be his last at the Empire State Building Run-Up.
With one eye on a pro cycling career, Paul Crake was ready to call time on his incredible run at the Empire State Building when he got set to race on Tuesday 4 February 2003.
Unbeaten in each of his four appearances at the ESBRU, Crake had become the first man to run the course in under 10 minutes when he clocked 9:53 in 2000. The following year he shocked the stair running world again by winning in 9:37.
But Crake had saved his best for last. His final run at the iconic New York tower was magisterial. He set an untouchable new record of 9:33.
‘To win five years in a row has been fantastic. It’s been a dream run,’ said Crake.
When asked why he kept returning year after year even though the race has no prize money, he responded: ‘It’s for the trophy, the honour and the glory.’
Already a two-time winner at the ESBRU, and the only woman to have run the full 86 floor course in under 12 minutes, Andrea Mayr was the firm pre-race favourite at the 2006 event. There was no suggestion that she might be beaten, instead the talk was all about how much faster could she go.
Three months before the ESBRU, Mayr had won the inaugural Taipei 101 Run Up in a time of 12:38 (a record that still stands). She was in outstanding form coming into the race.
The Austrian ran the course virtually unchallenged. She finished in an incredible new course record of 11:23, which was fast enough to place her fifth overall. Her record still stands.
2006 was the last time Mayr ran at the Empire State Building. Seven months later she went on to win her first World Mountain Running Championship title and began another history making run in that athletic discipline.
Although in February 2009 Suzy Walsham was a little over two years into her tower running career, she’d already established herself as the one to beat in Manhattan. She was going for her third straight ESBRU.
In 2007 and 2008, Walsham had been joined on the podium by Cindy Harris and Fiona Bayly. Both were once again expected to be among Walsham’s toughest challengers. Debutants Jessamy Hosking (AUS) and Daniela Vassalli (ITA) were also anticipated to be in the mix for the top spots.
When the claxon went off in the lobby, the mass of women dashed headlong for the door.
Running side-by-side towards the entrance to the stairs, Walsham and Vassalli were battling for space.
Nearing the door, it seemed like Walsham was going to pass the Italian, but Vassalli had other ideas. She reached up and shoved the Australian, causing her to lose her balance and smash face first into the stone door frame. You can see Walsham’s falling figure (yellow top) in the picture above.
Bruised and bashed with the front runners now well ahead, Walsham found herself in around 30th place by the time she had got off the floor and onto the stairs.
What followed was one of the defining moments in Walsham’s amazing ESBRU story.
She started picking off runner after runner, slowly pulling in the leaders. By the 50th floor she caught Vassalli. Hosking and Harris were still up ahead.
At the 65th floor Walsham took the lead and then held it all the way to the top. Her knee injured and her face swollen, she crossed the line in obvious pain just 13 seconds ahead of Vassalli who had surged into second place.
That comeback victory in 2009 was the slowest of the 10 ESBRU races Walsham would eventually win, but without doubt it is one of the best.
Whether you go back to Sheila Duncan running as the only woman in the 1968 BT Tower race in London or admire the incredible ongoing career of Cindy Harris, women have been at the heart of competitive tower running since the sport’s very beginning.
Women’s tower running has come a long way since the earliest stair races at the start of the 1900s.
On the left is the unnamed winner of the women’s division at the Montmartre stair race in 1903. On the right is Mme. Baube, winner of the 1906 Eiffel Tower stair race.
This International Women’s Day we take a quick look at just a handful of some of the brilliant women who have played a key role in the sport.
Marcy Schwam
Schwam (above wearing #11) was already an ultra-running pioneer before she turned up at the first Empire State Building Run-Up in 1978. Only three women took part in the inaugural event. She was the first woman to reach the top and although she never returned to race on the stairs again, she has the honour of being the first woman to win a stair race in the USA.
After the first ESBRU, Schwam went on to set multiple long distance records and is still running now.
Nina Kuscsik
Like Schwam, Nina Kuscsik was also a pioneer of women’s participation in running events. She campaigned for equal participation for women at the marathon distance and in 1972 she won the New York and Boston marathons.
Kuscsik went on to to win three ESBRU titles from 1979-1981. She would return to the tower multiple times, racing well into her 70s.
The incredible tower running career of the 2020 USA stairclimbing champion Cindy Harris is one of our favourite parts of the ongoing story of this sport.
Harris has been winning races, sometimes outright ahead of all competing men as well, at the top level for 25 years.
Cindy Harris after winning her first ESBRU title in 1998
Three-time winner and course record holder at the ESBRU, six-time world mountain running champion and two-time Olympian, Andrea Mayr is one of the best athletes to have ever competed in the discipline of tower running.
The Austrian doctor has dipped in and out of the scene since the early 2000s, but she has left her mark with a series of stunning performances over the years, including a record-breaking run at Taipei 101 in 2005 and victory at the Towerrunning World Championship in 2015.
Andrea Mayr winning the 2015 Towerrunning World Championship
The name Suzy Walsham is now synonymous with tower running. In a glittering 14 year career that shows no sign of letting up, the Australian superstar has won everything there is to win.
The 2018 world championship and 10 ESBRU titles are perhaps the most prominent among her multitude of successes, but there are plenty more aside.
Five wins at Taipei 101, eight Vertical World Circuit titles and nine Towerrunning Tour titles are just a few of the additional accolades she’s secured.
That’s not to mention the brilliant track and field career she had before she turned her attention to stair climbing. You can read about that here (along with her 2007 ESBRU win).
The constant stream of praise for the humility and helpfulness of the most successful tower runner of all-time is further testament to the excellence of this fantastic ambassador for tower running.
These women, and many, many more besides, have each played their own important role in this sport. We’ve enjoyed researching and writing about each of them over the years and look forward to putting together many more articles about their fantastic achievements and the other incredible women in the world of tower running.
In a sport as small and widely ignored as tower running, you’d be forgiven for having never heard of one its finest practitioners. Even more so when you consider this legend has routinely dipped in and out of the sport over a 15-year period, gracing it with short, but lasting, flashes of brilliance before disappearing from the scene for years at a time.
Although you may never have heard of her, Andrea Mayr is one of the best athletes in the world. She’s a six-time world mountain running champion, the course record holder and three-time winner at the Empire State Building Run-Up, the fastest woman to have run up Taipei 101 and has represented Austria at the World Athletics Championships (3000m SC, 2005) and Olympic Games (marathon, 2012 and 2016).
In 2015, after a long break from stair climbing, Mayr came down from the mountains to win the Towerrunning World Championship in Doha, Qatar. Then she disappeared again. What’s she been up to?
Four successful years
You could fill a small book detailing what Andrea Mayr’s been doing in the past four years. What follows is only a snapshot of the accolades she’s bagged during this period. There’s way too much to cover in detail.
She won the World Mountain Running Championship and the World Mountain Running Association World Cup (WMRA) in 2016.
Andrea Mayr on her way to winning the 2016 World Mountain Running Championship
In 2017, she was second at the World Mountain Running Championship and third at the European Mountain Running Championship. She also won the vertical race at the Ski Mountaineering World Championship that year.
In 2018 she won the WMRA World Cup and the Red Bull 400 World Championship.
Mayr begins to pull away at the Red Bull 400 World Championship 2018
In among that busy 2018 season, Mayr was invited to partake in the Towerrunning World Championships at Taipei 101 in May.
In terms of participation on the stairs, that news that she wouldn’t be able to compete was pretty much the last the tower running community heard about Mayr.
Andrea Mayr wins the 2015 Towerrunning World Championships
But, as we head into another Towerrunning World Championship year, attention turns her way once more.
A wildcard entry to the event at Taipei 101 in May 2020 will be extended to the Austrian. Whether she decides to accept it is another matter. We can but hope.
It’s worth noting that Mayr is a medical doctor, working the long shifts associated with that profession and still taking examinations. The fact she has found time to put in the training required to stay at the top of the world mountain running and ski mountaineering circuit is miraculous. And that busy schedule could be an issue.
When she returned in 2015 to win the Towerrunning World Championship, she did so with no stair workouts. Suzy Walsham came within a whisker of beating her day.
If Mayr decides to come back next year she may want to set aside some time for tower running specific workouts that will put her in the best position to contend with Walsham, the resurgent Valentina Belotti and who knows who else.
But will she be able to find time? Will she even want to come back?
There’s much to ponder.
But let’s see where Mayr is now. We pick up her trail in the first quarter of 2019.
Ski mountaineering World Championships
On Wednesday 13th March 2019, Mayr was in Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland for the Ski mountaineering World Championships.
When Mayr had won the title in 2017, she had done so as somewhat of an underdog against younger emerging stars like Emelie Forsberg. But this year, as the defending champion, there was far more expectation on her.
In ski-mountaineering, Mayr prefers steep courses. With her strong mountain running background, she is no stranger to routes with big vertical gains, and she was anticipating a steep course at these world champs.
But due to safety concerns as a result of adverse weather conditions, the race organisers were forced to change the route to a flatter one just a day before the event. The 4km course would take in 420m of vertical gain.
The change made Mayr nervous. But you’d never have guessed as she stormed to back-to-back titles.
You can see her in action in the video below and hear her thoughts on the race.
Vertical kilometer course record at Trofeo Nasego
On Saturday 18th May, in rain swept Casto, Italy, Mayr went head-to-head with long-time rival Andrea Belotti. The battleground this time was the tough vertical kilomoter race at the Trofeo Nasego mountain running event.
Mayr was in majestic form as she broke the previous course record by more than four minutes, to finish in 38:39.
Clips from her winning run – from start line to finish – can be seen in the first minute and a bit of the video below.
Austrian Mountain Running Championship
On Sunday 2nd June, the Internationaler Raiffeisen Lipizzanerheimat Berglauf doubled as the Austrian national mountain running championships.
Mayr completely dominated the race. She completed the 9.2km course (with 1,075 gain) in 52:20, over seven minutes faster than the second-placed woman.
Course record at Katrinberglauf
As the 2018 champion and course record holder at the Katrinberglauf in Austria, Mayr returned to the mountain on Sunday 16th June to defend her title.
She continued her run of outstanding form to take almost a minute off her previous best time.
Andrea Mayr leads out the field at the Katrinberglauf 2019
Crossing icy ground on her way to setting a new course record
European Mountain Running Championships
Winner in 2005 and 2013-2015, and then third in 2017, the Austrian has a great record at these championships.
On Sunday, 7th July in Zermatt, Switzerland she was back to challenge Europe’s best once again. The race was across a 10.1 km course with 1,030 meters of ascent.
Standing between Mayr and a fifth title was the incredible Swiss athlete, Maude Mathys, winner in 2017 and 2018.
Mayr during the European Mountain Running Championships 2019
Despite maintaining a narrow lead in the first half of the race over the steeper parts of the course, Mayr was reeled back in by the younger Mathys as the course leveled out in the second half.
Mayr finished second, a minute back from Mathys who secured her third European crown in a row.
Piz Tri Vertical
A little under a month later (Saturday 3rd August), Mayr was back in Italy for another battle with Valentina Belotti at a vertical kilometer race (across a 3.5km course).
At the 2018 edition of the event, the Austrian had broken Belotti’s course record. The 38:11 she ran that day was called a ‘phenomenal’ and ‘sensational’ time.
That reporter would have done well to keep some superlatives back for the 2019 race report, because Mayr obliterated that record as she crossed the line in 37:20.
On the course of the Piz Tri Vertical 2019
Red Bull 400 Bischofshofen
Three weeks later (Saturday 24th August), Mayr was on home soil to take part in the Red Bull 400 race in Bischofshofen.
She was looking to win the event for the fourth time in a row, and was squaring off against fellow Austrian multi-sport athlete, and tower runner, Veronika Windisch.
Mayr won in a brilliant 3:52, followed by Windisch in 4:44 and Finland’s Mila Koljonen in 4:46.
‘I really felt very good from the beginning and especially in the last part, where the spectators are so close. You feel really motivated,’ she told Red Bull. ‘I’m really happy with the race. It’s a competition that really is a lot of fun and that’s one of the main reasons I participate.’
Pulling away at the Red Bull 400 Bischofshofen
Back to the Hochfelln-Berglauf
As the course record holder and nine-time winner of the Hochfelln-Berglauf, including five straight wins from 2014-2018, Mayr was expected to secure an astonishing 10th title when she returned to the event on Sunday 29th September.
And she did. It was the slowest winning time of all of her victories, but she still finished three and a half minutes ahead of second place.
Mayr completed the roughly 9km course (with 1,074m of vertical gain) in 49:51.
Ten-time winner of the Hochfelln-Berglauf
What’s next?
So, after that snapshot of her stacked 2019 season, this is where we find the magisterial Andrea Mayr.
On Friday 15th November in Villa La Angostura, Argentina the World Mountain Running Championships will take place. Mayr will likely be planning to be in attendance to see if she can win a seventh title. She finished 6th in 2018.
Beyond that is the Towerrunning World Championship at Taipei 101 in May, 2020.
By the time that comes around it will be almost 15 years since she set the course record of 12:38 at the tower in November, 2005.
Will we get to see one of the best tower runners of all time race again?
Italian mountain running legend Valentina Belotti will attempt to add a tower running world championship title to her long list of achievements when she races at Taipei 101 on Saturday.
The in-form Belotti returns to the venue where she won from 2011-2014, with the hopes of mounting a challenge against race favourite Suzy Walsham.
A four-time medallist at the World Mountain Running Championships (one gold and three silver), Belotti’s participation in tower running events has been sporadic in the last four years.
But she returned to winning ways this past weekend, taking victory at the second edition of the 535 in Condotta event in Moio de’ Calvi, Italy.
Belotti on her way to victory at 535 in Condotta (photo by Demis Milesi)
The course is very similar to that at the popular Valtellina Tube event and consists of a continuous staircase, 1.25km long, 2,527 steps straight up, with a 535m height gain.
Belotti finished the race in 20.53, ahead of Nives Carobbio (22.30) and Cecilia Pedroni (22.44).
The course at Moio de’ Calvi has very deep steps and an almost 80% incline at its maximum point, plus a 75% incline for the final 400m. That’s perfect preparation for the notoriously tall steps at Taipei 101.
Belotti is one of only two women to have run Taipei 101 in under 13 minutes. She set her fastest time of 12.54 back in 2013, although she hasn’t competed at the venue since she won in 2014.
But despite her absence from the competitive tower running scene in recent seasons, this performance on a particularly demanding course, plus her extensive experience in Taipei, puts her firmly in the mix for any discussion about who might come out on top at Saturday’s World Championship.
Even with reigning world champion Andrea Mayr out of the championship through injury, it will definitely not be plain sailing for Suzy Walsham. The Australian world number one will have to be at her very best to hold off strong challenges from Belotti, the Czech Republic’s Zuzana Krchova and American Cindy Harris.
Like us on Facebook for updates on upcoming events and tower running news from the UK and around the world.
The tower running World Championship 2018 is almost here. On Saturday 5th May, the world’s best tower runners will do battle on the stairs of Taipei 101 to decide who will be crowned world champion.
We take a look at the venue, the course records, previous winners and the World Championship race format to keep you in the know ahead of Saturday’s big event.
The venue
Formerly the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101 stands just over 509m tall. With the completion of the Burj Khalifa in 2010 it was knocked to second tallest building in the world, and in the years since then it has been eclipsed by eight other super towers. It’s worth having a read of the Wikipedia entry for Taipei 101, as it’s a very interesting building from an architectural and engineering standpoint and has also been internationally recognised for its ‘green’ credentials and sustainability efforts over the years. It’s a really prestigious venue for the World Championship.
The race stairwell is right-turning and has 2,046 steps, spread over 91 floors (of the building’s eponymous 101). The bulk of the steps at the building are notoriously tall. Somewhat uniquely, the landings include two additional steps between flights; so you reach the top of one flight, pivot 90°, take a step up, pivot again 90° and go up the next flight. That unfamiliar step layout is sure to throw a few racers out of their rhythm on race day and previous race experience in the tower will likely be a factor in the final standings.
Australia’s Alice McNamara won the Taipei 101 Run Up in 2016 and spoke about her experience there:
‘Taipei 101 has the challenge of a very steep, continuous staircase…there are no landings, just a 10-2-7-2 stair configuration all the way up. It is almost like climbing a steep spiral staircase on the 2 stair “landings” so it was very important to use the handrail on my right hand side to partially pull myself up.’
American stair climb legend, Kristin Renshaw (nee Frey), detailed her experience of the race in 2012 where she finished third, and the stairs sound pretty imposing when you read her description:
‘When I hit the monster steps, I knew it! They were exponentially larger than the ones we started climbing [on the lower floors of Taipei 101]; these steps were taller than any I’d ever encountered. I thought the steps in my training building were of decent size, especially the last two floors where they get taller and steeper, and Sears is known for having some giant steps, but those paled in comparison to the steps in the 101 tower.’
Course records
Taipei 101 got straight onto stair climb events when it opened, hosting its first race on Sunday 20th November 2005, less than a year after officially opening to the public.
The current men’s and women’s course records were set that day in 2005 and no one has come particularly close to beating them in the intervening years.
Former competitive cyclist Paul Crake (AUS) set the men’s record of 10.29. There’s an excellent interview with him on YouTube, which we highly recommend, where he talks about his life before and after the accident that left him paralysed.
Australian Paul Crake setting the course record in 2005 at the inaugural Taipei 101 Run Up
It’s important to put Crake’s record time at Taipei 101 into context for those perhaps unfamiliar with his tower running accomplishments. In 2015 world number one Piotr Lobodzinski won at Taipei in 11.08 and in 2016, current world number two, Frank Carreno won the race in 11.47.
Australia’s Mark Bourne (current world number five and last year’s winner) has come closest to Crake, taking victory in 2013 in a time of 10.52 and in 2014 in 10.54. Former world number one, and seven time ESBRU winner, Thomas Dold (GER) managed to finish in 10.58 at the 2008 event, while Piotr Lobodzinski also managed a sub-11 time of 10.58 in 2014, when finishing second behind Bourne.
Impressive as they are, those sub-11 times are still quite some way off the incredible record set by Crake.
Course record holder Paul Crake (left) received a lifetime achievement award at the Taipei 101 Run Up 2017
Reigning world champion Andrea Mayr, who sadly is out of this year’s event, set the women’s record of 12.38. In a similar way to Crake, Mayr’s time has remained largely unrivalled since 2005, and she is one of only two women to have gone under 13 minutes in the event’s history.
Mayr also clocked 12.54 in 2007, while Italian Valentina Belotti managed 12.54 on her way to winning in 2013.
Andrea Mayr sets the women’s course record of 12.38 in 2005.
Taipei 101 Run Up winners: 2005-2017
2005 –Paul Crake (AUS) 10.29 and Andrea Mayr (AUT) 12.38
2006 – Paul Crake (AUS) 10.31 and Andrea Mayr (AUT) 13.28
2007 –Marco De Gasperi (ITA) 11.39 and Andrea Mayr (AUT) 12.54
2008 –Thomas Dold (GER) 10.53 and Jenny Hsiao-yu Li (TWN) 14.53
2009 – Thomas Dold (GER) 11.05 and Suzy Walsham (AUS) 14.20
2010 – Marco De Gasperi (ITA) 11.09 and Melissa Moon (NZL) 14.16
2011 – Thomas Dold (GER) 11.19 and Valentina Belotti (ITA) 13.51
2012 – Mark Bourne (AUS) 11.26 and Valentina Belotti (ITA) 13.21
2013 – Mark Bourne (AUS) 10.52 and Valentina Belotti (ITA) 12.54
2014 – Mark Bourne (AUS) 10.54 and Valentina Belotti (ITA) 13.22
2015 – Piotr Lobodzinski (POL) 11.08 and Suzy Walsham (AUS) 13.16
2016 – Frank Carreño (COL) 11.47 and Alice McNamara (AUS) 14.23
2017 – Mark Bourne (AUS) 11.24 and Suzy Walsham (AUS) 13.36
Race format
The World Championship event will be played out over two races, with the climber scoring the most points from the two races combined becoming the 2018 world champion.
The first heat will be a shorter race up to the 35th floor (824 steps). That will start at 7.30am local time (12.30am UK time), with runners being set off every 30 seconds. All TWA registered stair climbers in attendance will take part. Points will be assigned to the top 50 finishers in the male and female categories.
The final will start at 8.30am local time, and will be a full run up 2,046 steps to the the top of the tower. Again, runners will be set off at 30-second intervals and points will be assigned to the top 50 finishers in the male and female categories.
This new race format is a marked shift from the 2015 World Championship. At that event in Doha, Qatar the final was limited to the top 30 finishers in the male and female divisions in the first heat, which unlike this event was open to all. What’s more, finishing positions in the second heat that year determined start positions on an F1-style grid format in the final the following day.
Piotr Lobodzinski takes off from pole position on the grid at the 2015 tower running World Championship in Doha, Qatar
The grid was set 150m back from the tower entrance and athletes had to run in to the stairwell. This allowed for a few position changes before the athletes even hit the stairs, which didn’t sit well with some.
Obviously, logistics mean that the event at Taipei 101 needs to be done and dusted on the Saturday, but the very limited recovery period (90 minutes) between the first round and final seems unduly harsh on the competitors. The short recovery period is certainly going to unstick some of them, and make their second climb unpleasant. It would be fairer to have the final at the very end of the day’s events, after all the non-elite and corporate teams have finished.
The removal of a pre-run into the tower is welcomed, though. As purists, we think all races should start as close to the stairs as possible.
We won’t get into a full discussion of what we consider all the pros and cons of the differing race formats, but we do think there should be a move towards uniformity at future championships, where possible. But of course the World Championship is very much in its infancy and some experimentation with the format is to be expected at this stage.
The World Championship was initially scheduled for 2017 in China, with the plan for the tower running World Championship to follow the biennial pattern of its track and field cousin. Last year’s very late cancellation was a bitter disappointment for fans, but the Taipei 101 race is sure to be an excellent one and we are super hyped for this exciting event.
Will Showtime Lobodzinski retain his world title or can Mark Bourne take victory for a record fifth time at Taipei 101? With reigning world champion Andrea Mayr out of the event, is there anyone left to pose a significant challenge to the almost invincible Suzy Walsham?
Keep an eye out later this week for our guide to the top athletes taking part in the 2018 tower running World Championship.
Like us on Facebook for updates on upcoming events and tower running news from the UK and around the world.
The 2015 world tower running champion Andrea Mayr has been forced to withdraw from this weekend’s World Championship event at Tapei 101 due to injury.
The Austrian sustained an ankle injury back in February, and has now confirmed her withdrawal from the biggest event of the season.
The Olympic marathoner has been largely absent from the tower running circuit since she took victory at the inaugural World Championship in 2015, but was primed to return to defend her title at Taipei 101 on 5 May.
Mayr, who set the Taipei 101 course record of 12.38 back in 2005, was hotly anticipated to provide current world number one Suzy Walsham with her toughest challenge.
Andrea Mayr winning the inaugural tower running World Championship in 2015
Of the remaining women set to line out in Taiwan, only Czech athlete Zuzana Krchova has recently beaten Walsham. Krchova took victory over her at the Towerrunning Tour 2017 Final in January, which was at the 1,210-step Beichen Plaza in Changsha, China. She also won the Rondo 1 event in Poland, back in March, among a highly-competitive field of European athletes.
Krchova is obviously an accomplished and formidable tower runner, but how she will fair at the considerably taller 2,046-step Taipei 101 is to be seen.
The highly-experienced Walsham has raced and won at the tower multiple times and, with obvious disappointment at Mayr’s injury aside, will surely now be brimming with confidence. The absence of Japan’s Yuri Yoshizumi, another of the few women to have ever beaten Walsham, will be a further boost to the race favourite.
Tower Running UK 