Have you ever heard of tower running? If you haven’t then we got you covered. Tower running is a sport that involves running up tall man-made structure like internal staircases or skyscrapers. It’s basically a race for people who aren’t afraid of heights.
However, not all sports are taken seriously by everyone, even sports fans themselves, but for those who don’t know, we actually do have our very own champion tower runner who recently just set a new record for Malaysia! Let’s learn more about him and his recent achievement:
Soh Wai Ching is from Selayang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and started his career in tower running in 2017 when his friend challenged him to participate in a competition. He was named the fastest Malaysian participant at the “KL Tower International Towerthon Challenge” and became Asia’s top tower runner after 50 worldwide races.
The 27-year-old posted on his Instagram earlier this week where he won first place in the “Tunnel to Towers Climb NYC” competition after successfully running up the One World Trade Center in New York (2226 Steps, 104 Floors) in less than 13 minutes, further proving why he still holds the title for World No.1 Tower Runner.
“Happy with a win here this morning running up One World Trade Center. Let’s continue to fly our Jalur Gemilang high on the global stage,” he said in his Instagram posts. The competition in New York was apparently his 7th time winning first place in 8 different cities around the world this year.
Despite being the World No.1 Tower Runner, the athlete apparently has not received any money since February after his long-time sponsors chose to focus more on other sports such as hockey and cycling. The Malaysian runner told FMT recently that, “Despite being low on money, I will continue to run up iconic buildings around the world not just to win the race but to fly the Jalur Gemilang high.”
What’s next for the 2020 Guinness World Record holder? According to his Instagram post, his next race will still be in New York as he will participate in the “Fight For Air Climb NYC” at Penn 1 Plaza on 11th June. We wish Soh Wai Ching all the best and may he continue to make the country proud!
Sources: Instagram, FreeMalaysiaToday
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