Soh Wai Ching conquered the Cologne Tower in record time

Soh Wai Ching broke his record at the Cologne Towerrun challenge and defended his title in Cologne, Germany.

On Sunday, Wai Ching completed the 39-floors of 714 steps (132-meter elevation gain) in three minutes and 17 seconds.

Former world number one Christian Riedl of Germany held the previous course record of 3:23s, set in 2017.

Gorge Heimann clocked 3:35s, and Andreas Fruhmann finished in 3:37s, coming in second and third, respectively.

Wai Ching said he was grateful for his record-breaking feat and hoped to achieve a double gold target by winning the Zagreb Tower event on Saturday to celebrate Merdeka.

“Tomorrow, I will be travelling to Zagreb, Croatia and start preparing for the next Tower run, and I aim to win the competition and break the course record.

“It will be 25 floors, 490 steps and 83.3m elevation gain. I am super excited to achieve a double gold to celebrate Malaysia’s Independence Day,” he said to Bernama when contacted in Germany.

Soh has been ranked world No. 1 since April.

In June this year, Soh conquered new heights by smashing a nine-year-old course record by 24 seconds, racing up 55 floors (1,210 steps) in 5 minutes 29 seconds.

Soh also easily won his eighth race this year in New York by running up the 104 floors of New York’s One World Trade Center.

He rose to fame after successfully challenging the Guinness World Record for the Greatest Vertical Height Stair Climbing in One Hour in the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC).

Hailing from Selayang, Soh took up tower running in 2017. In the KL Tower International Towerthon Challenge in 2017, he beat his friend and was named the fastest Malaysian participant.

Wai Ching started taking part in different competitions and tournaments. Fast forward, he is now the top tower runner in Asia. He had conquered over forty buildings in more than 50 tower-running races around the world.

Some famous destinations he has run and made it to the top include the Willis Tower in Chicago, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Cologne Tower in Germany, the Ostankino Tower in Moscow, and the famous Empire State Building in New York City.

Earlier this year, Soh faced difficulties continuing his tower run due to a shortage of funds.

However, the Better Malaysia Foundation (BMF) stepped in to sponsor for a year at a total of RM111,600 from July until June next year.