Tower First site of the VertiGO!
The fourth stage of the 2016 Vertical World Circuit heads for Paris and the VertiGo race up France’s tallest building. Top ranked runners from around the world are gathering here to gain points in the nine-race Vertical World Circuit.
Friday’s race will see nearly 2,000 participants race up the 954 steps and 48 floors of the Tour First, an office skyscraper in the business district of the Paris metropolitan area, for the third year running an official Vertical World Circuit race counting for the ranking.
Leading the VWC elites are Lenka Svabikova from the Czech Republic, who won the race last year and currently heads the VWC ranking after winning in London and placing second in Dubai. Italian Cristina Bonacina who is ranked 2nd will be racing here together with Australian Cynthia Reid (3rd on the 2015 ranking).
The men’s line-up includes Ignacio Cardona from Spain (currently ranked 2nd), Italians Emanuele Manzi (3rd) and Angelo Busi (8th), Briton Mark Sims (4th) and Eric Hoi Chun Yeung, a top vertical runner from China.
Manzi, Svabikova, Bonacina and Lobodzinski, 2015 winner
After London, Dubai and New York, it’s the turn of Paris to showcase the new and inspiring sport of stair climbing involving hundreds of thousands of runners across the world. In most cases, the races are charity driven, like VertiGo, raising funds for a good cause. Racing up skyscrapers is also an excellent showcase to create awareness for a healthier lifestyle, to assist in a weight loss programme and to raise fitness levels in urban areas that are ever more prone to heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
The 2016 Vertical World Circuit counts nine races stretching across the globe up some of the most iconic towers in the world.
The circuit kicked off in London on March 8th, followed by Dubai and New York where the highest race on the circuit, the recent T2T Tower Climb, took place on the One World Trade Center, the highest building in the Western Hemisphere and highest on the circuit, with 104 floors and a lung-busting 2,226 steps.
After Paris, the circuit will head for Manila, Sydney, Beijing and Shanghai, to conclude with the Grand Finale in Hong Kong on December 4 where the World Champions will be crowned and awarded cash prizes.
Five out of the nine races count for the final ranking.
The VertiGo race, now in its 4th year, is organised by PL4Y International (formerly Sport Without Borders).
About PL4Y International
The money raised will help PL4Y International to develop its programmes across the globe. Since 1999, the NGO has used sports as powerful leverage for social change and has showed that innovation through sports favours social cohesion.
About VertiGo
Tower: Tour First
Elevation: 225m
Race floors: 48
Steps: 954
Website: www.course-vertigo.org
Race records: Piotr Lobodzinski (POL) 4’43”. Suzy Walsham (AUS) 5’43”
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