An Australian woman has taken home the honors in the annual Empire State Building Run-Up (ESBRU), taking just 12 minutes to complete the event.
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, Suzanne Walsham, raced up 1,576 steps in just 12 minutes and 30 seconds to win the 38th Empire State Building annual tower climb. To prepare for the event, the iconic landmark in New York shut its gates early.
ESB Observatories will close @ 8pm on Feb 4 for #ESBRU; last elevator will go up @ 7:15pm. Normal business hours will resume @ 8am on Feb 5.
— Empire State Bldg (@EmpireStateBldg) Feb. 2, 2015
With people from all over the world participating in the event, the Empire State Building Run-Up ranks among the well-known tower climbs.
The event was organized by New York Road Runners (NYCRUNS), which also organizes the NY City Marathon, and saw Walsham scale 86 floors of the observatory.
Victory, however, is not new to Walsham as she has won the Empire State Building Run-Up for the sixth time - a record in the women's event. Walsham may have beat out competition from Hundreds of people who took the stairs to win the coveted event, but she was unable to better her 2014 timing of 11 minutes and 57 seconds.
The record timing for the women's event was set in 2006 and is held by Andrea Mayr of Austria. Mayr completed the course in 11 minutes and 23 seconds.
The men's event was won by Christian Riedel of Germany who won for the first time. Riedel took 10 minutes and 16 seconds to complete the race. Riedel has competed in the event before, but never came close to winning.
In 2014, the Empire State Building Run-Up was won by Norwegian Thorbjorn Ludvigsen in 10 minutes and 6 seconds.
The record for the men is held by Paul Crake - also an Australian - who took 9 minutes and 33 seconds to complete the course in 2003. The record for the maximum wins - of seven - for men is held by Thomas Dold, from Germany.
The tower climb offers no prize money to the winners and it is simply the thrill and prestige associated with the event that keeps the athletes motivated.
The list of results is as follows:
Results (Men)
1 Christian Riedel (GER), 10:16
2 Thorbjorn Ludvigsen (NOR), 10:19
3 Darren Wilson (AUS), 10:53
4 Sproule Love (USA), 11:14
5 Emanuele Manzi (ITA), 11:24
6 Eirik Haugsness (NOR), 11:38
Results (Women)
1 Suzanne Walsham (AUS), 12:30
2 Stephanie Hucko (USA), 13:50
3 Shari Klarfeld (USA), 13:55
4 Cindy Harris (USA), 14:22
5 Cristina Bonacina (ITA), 15:03
6 Veronica Stocker (CAN), 15:25
