Benidorm hosts this Saturday the XVII Vertical Ascent to Gran Hotel Bali

Benidorm will host this coming Saturday, April 22 at 10:00 in the morning, the XVII edition of the Vertical Ascent to Gran Hotel Bali, a "mythical" test that is included for the sixth year in the Towerrunning World Association World Circuit. The appointment was presented this morning at a press conference by the Councilor for Sports, Mariló Cebreros, the technical director of the event, Miquel Tortosa, and the commercial director of the Bali hotel, Jerónimo Llinares.

Participants must ascend 190 meters of the unevenness of the 52 floors and 924 steps and there will be three categories. On the one hand, as Cebreros has detailed, there will be the test of firefighters "equipped with all their intervention equipment, bottle, and trellis, with more than 120 registered". Then there is the Open category, for all those who wish to do so regardless of their physical condition, and, thirdly, the Elite category "in which specialists from all over the world and the best times from previous editions will take part".

The event is being held again after three years of absence due to the pandemic and the registration limit set by the organization with 450 participants has already been reached. The mayor of Sports has specified that there will be "athletes from all over the world from countries such as the United States, Mexico, Malaysia, Japan, Italy, Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and from all over Spain."

Tortosa indicated, for his part, that the athletes who will participate in the Elite category "are specialists in tall buildings and among them is the number one in the world ranking, the Malaysian Soh Wai Ching, who is winning all the tests and who told me that he is going to break the record”.

In this sense, the director of Vertical Ascent has indicated that the top ten in the world ranking will be present and also that the first in the ranking, the Czech Kamila Chomanikova, and the first in the world ranking will do so in the female category.

In addition to the traditional gifts from sponsors, more than 3,000 euros in cash prizes have been established, and a bonus if the current records of the race held by the German Christian Riedl in the men's category with a time of 4 are broken. '20” and the Australian Suzy Walsham with a time of 5'31”.