Ostankino Tower situated in the northern part of the Russian capital Moscow with a height of 540 m still is the highest building on European soil. For eight years between 1967 and 1975 it even topped the world’s list. Situated in a park area the freestanding tower broadcasts many TV and radio programs to millions of receivers. There is a visitor platform at 337 m. It can be reached by elevator in 58 seconds from ground level or a little bit longer by towerrunners using the stairwell !
Technically the stairwell consists of 1704 metal stairs with a varying angle fro 39 to 56 degrees covering a total distance of 686 meters. It is unusually narrow with a width of just one meter making eventual passing not easy. The necessary security measures we are used to at our venues are especially strict here and except a very short look into the stairwell a few minutes before the start there is no chance to get a feeling. So preparing race tactics is very difficult at Ostankino for the athletes, you can only learn during actual races !
Race format of this 2nd Ostankino Tower Run of course is individual with long interval (1 min) and best seeded athletes beginning. So World Champion and TWA Ranking leader Piotr Lobodzinski (POL) opened exactly at noon
Having been beaten last year from German Christian Riedl by less than a second this time there was no question at all. 9:36 was a new course record by 15 seconds and the only sub10 time of the day ! Runner Up was Wai Ching Soh (MAS) exactly 30 seconds behind and 11 seconds before Mexican Alexis Trujillo (10:17). Görge Heimann from Germany placed 4th missing the podium by just 4 seconds. 5th (and still fastest in the family 🙂 ) was Emanuele Manzi (ITA-10:32) followed by Stefan Stefina (SVK-10:57). Next came another Mexican Jesus Raya (MEX) and Henrik Holstad from Norway
. The fastest home runner was Velimir Nazarow with a time of 12:12 reaching 9th place.
Our reigning Towerrunning World Champion Suzy Walsham (AUS) opened the female race clocking a new course record of 11:40, but it should last only for 14 seconds ! With a very impressive performance the 2009 World Mountain Running Champion Valentina Belotti finished in 10:54 (just 22 seconds trailing to husband Emanuele 🙂 ) setting a new outstanding record. Defending champion Cindy Harris (12:46) had to be content with the last podium rank this year. Cristina Bonacina completed the Italian success story by finishing 4th in 13:59 followed by Kamila Chovanicova (SVK-14:08) and Sonja Shakespeare (GBR- 15:12)
Next came Maria Elisa Lopez (MEX-15:24) and the fastest Russian Elena Pshenichnaya placing 8th with 16:27.
Many thanks from the Towerrunning Family to RTRS for making possible this Towerrunning 200 race at such a special location and to Vadim Nikitin and his team for organizing it, we are looking forward a 3rd edition next year !
