HCM City: over 700 runners conquer 81-storey skyscraper
More than 700 athletes on April 28 raced the height of the 81-storey skyscraper Landmark 81 in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh district, the highest building in Southeast Asia.
Top winners of the race pose for a group photo (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) – More than 700 athletes on April28 raced the height of the 81-storey skyscraper Landmark 81 in Ho Chi MinhCity’s Binh Thanh district, the highest building in Southeast Asia.
The Race to the Summit, as part of the annual Vertical WorldCircuit (VWC), gathered professional runners from Australia, Poland, Japan, theRepublic of Korea, and Vietnam, among others. To win the race, they had tocomplete 2,400 steps from the 1st to 81st floor of thebuilding, which was considered the second hardest challenge of its kind in theworld this year.
Finishing within 11:35 minutes, Piotr Lobodzinski fromPoland, winner of the VWC World Championship in five consecutive years, toppedthe male category. He was followed by Mark Bourne from Australia with 12:25minutes and Emanuele Manzi, Italian, 13 minutes.
Australian runner Suzy Walsham won the female category with14:36 minutes, followed by Kim Jieun from the RoK (15:02), Laura Manninen fromFinland (15:44). Nguyen Linh Chi from Vietnam came in fifth at 17:34 minutes.Chi was also the first among participating Vietnamese athletes to complete thechallenge.
The race took place on the occasion of the inaugural of the5-star hotel Vinpearl Luxury Landmark 81 at the building.-VNA
The Vertical World Circuit Champion Melissa Moon from New Zealand will participate in the first skyscraper running competition in Vietnam , the Bitexco Vertical Run (BVR).
There were no surprises at the Hanoi Vertical Run, one stage of the 2013 Vertical World Circuit, as reigning champions Thomas Dold and Suzanne Walsham brushed aside challengers to claim first place in the men's and women's professional categories.
British architecture companies Atkins and Arup have started working on a 460-metre skyscraper in HCM City, which will become Vietnam's tallest building on completion in 2017.
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The Vietnamese team will gather on June 26 in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, where they will train until July 14 before departing for Indonesia for the ASEAN U23 Championship 2025, which runs from July 15 to 29. Vietnam will face Laos on July 19 and Cambodia on July 22 in the group stage.
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For the first time, the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) has granted Vietnam hosting rights for the two championships, including the Asian women’s solo category, which debuts this year as an officially recognised event.
Eight teams will join the tournament, divided into two groups. Group A features Vietnam, the Philippines, Sichuan Club (China), and Australia, while Group B consists of Vietnam U21, Korabelka Club (Russia), Taiwan (China), and U21 Thailand.
Despite strong home support and high expectations, Vietnam were unable to overcome the defending champions, who secured their third consecutive win over Vietnam in a regional final, following previous victories in 2014 and 2023.
The event, part of Vietnam’s cultural diplomacy strategy through 2030, was jointly organised by the Vietnamese Embassy in Venezuela and USM’s Faculty of International Relations. It attracted thousands of students from universities across Venezuela.
For the first time, Vietnamese audiences will have the opportunity to experience the ballet masterpiece "Don Quixote" in its original version by renowned choreographer Marius Petipa.
The contest carried deep meaning as it was the first time the life of Vietnamese women abroad had been highlighted as the central theme, said poet and writer Nguyen Quang Thieu, Chairman of the Vietnam Writers’ Association.
The event formed part of Vietnam’s ongoing campaign to seek UNESCO World Heritage status for the complex at the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, scheduled to take place in Paris in July.
Creative cultural festivals are fast emerging as a new catalyst for tourism development in Vietnam, as localities increasingly invest in these vibrant events on a more systematic and larger scale.
This marks the first time Vietnam has hosted a continental-level Muay event which will feature competitions across 28 weight categories in combat and eight performance categories.
Coming to the Vietnamese booth, visitors had the chance to take part in a bamboo dance, a workshop on painting woven bamboo or rattan, or quizzes about Vietnam.
These are impressive achievements, not only showing the efforts and prowess of Vietnamese paddlers but also serving as proof of the sports sector’s strategic and systematic investment.
The cultural event in Canberra not only fostered cultural exchanges between Vietnam and Australia but also contributed to promoting Vietnam’s image internationally
The U23 competition will run from June 16 to 22, followed by the U17 event from June 23 to 28, while athletes competing in the U23 category will undergo weight and skill checks ahead of the matches starting June 18, while similar checks for U17 athletes will take place before June 23.
Top winners of the race pose for a group photo (Photo: VNA) 
