Khaleej Times

Best tower runners to ascend in the Capital

- Staff Reporter

abu dhabi — The world’s best tower runners will be eagerly lacing up their running shoes come Friday, as they take to the stairs for the ‘Climb to Abu Dhabi Vertical Marathon/Tower Race’.

50 internatio­nal tower runners will make the journey to the country’s capital to compete for the inaugural title, being presented by Daman’s ActiveLife at the iconic Etihad Towers Abu Dhabi.

The race will see a sell out across the community too. Brand Ambassador of the event and current World Champion, Piotr Lobodzinsk­i, was delighted with the participat­ion news and said the ‘Climb to Abu Dhabi’ has had a phenomenal response in its inaugural year, with runners coming from as far as Canada, Australia and China.

The event, an initiative of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, will see more than 700 participan­ts climb 82 floors/1,617 steps or 32 floors/720 steps across 6 race categories, with a total prize pool of US $25,000 up for grabs.

Hamad Al Mehyas, chief process officer at Daman, commented: “We are delighted to take part in Climb to Abu Dhabi. We continuous­ly aim to provide a number of activity platforms for different fitness levels and support the drive for fitness in our journey to create healthy communitie­s.”

Richard Foulds, head of property management at Etihad Towers, said: “On behalf of Shaikh Suroor Bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, we are pleased to be able to host the 2017 ‘Climb to Abu Dhabi Vertical Marathon’ at Etihad Towers in conjunctio­n with Abu Dhabi’s sports council, Daman Health Insurance and of course our hotel partners Jumeirah Group”.

This year’s event happily coindices with the 5th anniversar­y of the opening of Etihad Towers, which remains the largest mixed use developmen­t in Abu Dhabi.

Tower 2, where this year’s main event is taking place, is one of three residentia­l towers, measuring 310m in height and remains one of the tallest iconic residentia­l towers in Abu Dhabi, having starred in last year’s blockbuste­r movie Fast & Furious 7 and placing Etihad Towers firmly on the internatio­nal stage of high rise developmen­ts globally.

An exhibition race in 2017 under the sanctionin­g of the World Tower Running Associatio­n, the Climb to Abu Dhabi is also the first destinatio­n city for the newly formed Climb to Vertical Series, which will see cities from the Mena region take part in a Mena vertical series to launch in 2018.

Further details including race day informatio­n, training programmes and partners are available on www.climbtoabu­dhabi.com.

reporters@khaleejtim­es.com

 ??  ?? More than 700 participan­ts will climb 82 floors/1,617 steps or 32 floors/720 steps.
More than 700 participan­ts will climb 82 floors/1,617 steps or 32 floors/720 steps.

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