King At The Top: Malaysian Athlete Breaks World Record For Tower Running

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a rare occasion to see or hear news of our local athletes competing or breaking world records in tournaments.

But what seems impossible was eventually made possible - and one local athlete's quest to be the best even ended on a sweet note.

According to Bernama, tower running athlete Soh Wai Ching broke the Guinness World Record for the greatest vertical height stair climbing in one hour.

First Asia, Now The World

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Soh Wai Ching (@mastowerrunner)

It’s safe to say he’s emerged on top to claim his crown after completing his run at the Four Seasons Hotel in Kuala Lumpur by clocking in an accumulated vertical running distance of 1.295km.

Soh broke the record previously held by David Robles Tapia of Spain, who clocked in a distance of 1.227km in an hour.

Oh, the 26-year-old runner is also Asia’s number one tower running athlete, by the way.

Although Soh officially broke the world record, it may take sometime for his new record to be certified by Guinness.

Kita support kita! ???? Atlet Obstacle Racing negara, Saddam Pittli kongsi gambar ini dengan kami & dia sebenarnya turut bantu @MasTowerRunner menjadi pacer ketika sesi pecah rekod tadi. Sekarang kita tunggu keputusan rasmi @GWR. #GWRDay #KitaJagaKita #KamiTeamMalaysia pic.twitter.com/xB6MHmqDpz
— Team Malaysia (@TeamMsia) November 18, 2020

"We are going through the footage (of Soh's attempt) and it will take two days to get the results out because we will have to analyse the footage in detail and it is a long video," Guinness World Records official adjudicator Swapnil Dangarikar explained.

"I am glad that I managed to clock in good time with the run but I am a little disappointed that I couldn't reach my personal target distance of 1.3 km within the hour,” Soh told Bernama.

"I will work hard in my next run to break well over this target," he said adding that he plans to run up the Petronas Twin Tower in the future when the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

If you think running is already hard, try vertical running.

It will be only a few days until we get an official record from Guinness so in the meantime, let’s all congratulate Soh, who is also the president of the Malaysia Tower Running Association for his historical feat!