Taipei - Thomas Dold from Germany re-captured his title in the annual Taipei 101 Run-up Sunday, as Australian Suzy Walsham took the the title in the women's category. Dold, 24, took 11 minutes, 5 seconds to run up 91 floors and 2,046 steps of the 508-metre skyscraper, 10 seconds faster than Italian Marco De Gasperi who came the second place.
In the women's division, Walsham completed the race in 14 minutes and 20 second, followed by Taiwanese Lee Hsiao-yu who was 1 minute and 5 seconds slower.
The winner in the men's and women's division each won 200,000 Taiwan dollars (6,000 US dollars).
Dold, a winner in many skyscraper run-ups, was excited about his win which, he hopes, will help him launch a running-related career.
"I won the Empire State Building run-up in February, becoming the four-time winner, and now I have won the Taipei 101 run-up, my second win in the Taipei 101 race," he told German Press-Agency dpa.
"That is a great pleasure because Taipei 101 is the highest completed building in the world. Next Sunday I will attend the Run2Sky Europe Run-up in Messeturm Frankfurt and hope to get good a result," he said.
Dold is scheduled to graduate from a Stuttgart University in June, and plans to enter into running-related business.
A dozen foreign skyscraper runners and thousands of Taiwanese took part in the Taipei 101 Run-up.
Opened on January 1, 2004, the Taipei 101 surpassed Malaysia's Petronas Twin Towers on three of the four criteria specified by the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: structural height (508) metres, rooftop height (448 metres) and habitable floor height (438 metres).
Sears Tower in Chicago still keeps the world record for pinnacle/antenna height. Sears Tower, with a 85-metre spire, stands at 527 metres. Taipei 101, with a 60-metre spire, is 508 metres.
However, the Taipei-101 will lose its claim to "world's tallest building" to the Burj Dubai, which will be 800 to 950 metres tall with 160 to 189 storeys when construction is completed.
