KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysian tower runner Soh Wai Ching could not hide his happiness when he returned to carve his name on the top of Taipei 101 as the champion of the Tower Running World Championship in Taiwan after six years, yesterday.
The 30-year-old athlete who finished the race in third place in the 2018 edition, however, admitted that it was the result of hard work when he had to fight hard to beat the Japanese athlete, Ryoji Watanabe in the tournament.
“I am so thrilled to win the championship title finally after six years whereby our previous world championship in 2018 and it was supposed to happen in 2020 but because of the pandemic it got postponed and delayed.
“… and finally it happens today and I have been waiting for the moment for so long and finally achieve it for myself and for my sponsors and fellow Malaysians out there,” he said through a video on his official Facebook today.
Wai Ching also expressed the hope that the world championships could be organised in the Merdeka 118 building here
one day.
In the race, Wai Ching completed 91 floors in the first lap (elevation 390 metres (m)) in 11:35.61s and did 7:1.01s (elevation 256m) in the second lap.
Japan’s Ryoji Watanabe clocked 18:40.04s and Australia’s Mark Bourne (9:33.12) finished second and third respectively, according to the tournament’s official website.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency
