KUALA LUMPUR: National tower run ace Soh Wai Ching dreams of killing two birds with one stone as he bids to "conquer" the Merdeka 118 in December.
Apart from completing the climb up the 118-storey tower, which is the second tallest building and structure in the world, Wai Ching said he also hopes to break two Guinness World Records - greatest vertical height stair climbing in one hour (male) and fastest vertical mile stair climbing (male).
Based on the Guinness World Records, Spaniard Christian Roberto Lopez Rodriguez accomplished the greatest vertical height stair climbing in one hour at a distance of 1.457 kilometres (km) at a building in Albacete, Spain in 2022 while Ryoji Watanabe of Japan emerged as the fastest man to complete the vertical mile stair climb in one hour, six minutes and 58 seconds (s) at the Tokyo Skytree Tower in 2020.
"I was told that the height from the ground floor to the 118th floor is 510 metres (m), so I need to climb it three times to break the record set by the Spaniard.
"Then, I need to complete several more runs to clock under Watanabe's time of 1:06.58s for the second world record," he told Bernama after appearing as a guest on the Bernama Radio's "Bicara Lelaki" programme here today.
He plans to visit Merdeka 118 in July to make sure of the total number of steps he will need to make to complete the run and, hopefully, start training there in October.
The 29-year-old said a world-renowned hotel that is set to operate at Merdeka 118 is also interested in sponsoring him and arranging for a meeting with Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), the owner of the building, to get permission to carry out his mission at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Wai Ching is confident he can retain his position as the world's top-ranked tower runner this year as he is way ahead in terms of points accumulated.
As of March, Wai Ching has accumulated 971 points. His nearest challengers are Watanabe (771 points), and Italian Fabio Ruga (626 points).
Wai Ching is preparing for two local competitions this weekend before flying off to compete in Poland and Germany next week.
