The 10th “Oxfam TowerRun” held yesterday morning at Macau Tower attracted over 530 participants, with the aim of fundraising for those suffering from the “global climate crisis”, according to a statement by Oxfam.
Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organisations focusing on humanitarian work and alleviation of global poverty. Founded in 1942, Oxfam established its branch office in Macau in 2012.
Tower-running is a sport that involves running up tall buildings, such as the internal staircases of skyscrapers.
The statement said that the “Oxfam TowerRun”, held annually as a means of celebrating the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17), is accredited by the Towerrunning World Association (TWA) and the Asia-Pacific Vertical Marathon Association (AVA).
Yesterday’s competition was divided into three categories, namely the Full-run Challenge and Half-run Challenge, as well as the mixed-gender “Relay Team Challenge”. Participants who took up the Full-run Challenge ran from the tower’s ground floor to its adventure deck on the 61st floor, while those who joined the Half-run challenge climbed 31 floors, according to the statement.
Addressing the opening ceremony, José Álvares, vice chair of the board of directors of Oxfam in Macau, expressed gratitude to the participating runners, underlining that each step they took would “make a real difference for the less fortunate”.
Oxfam Hong Kong’s Director of Fundraising and Communications Michael Wong Ho Ming told The Macau Post Daily on the sidelines of the event he hoped to raise awareness of the need for climate action to better protect the human rights and livelihoods of people least equipped to deal with the global climate crisis, and to help frontline communities with limited resources to recover from catastrophic climate impacts.
Asked about the event’s effectiveness, Wong said that thanks to Macau’s post-pandemic tourism rebound and the marketisation effect brought by Oxfam’s partnership with the TWA, this year’s event had attracted a much larger number of international participants than in the previous years, including some of the world’s highest-ranked professional runners. Looking ahead, he said that Oxfam would further strengthen collaboration with the TWA, and explore opportunities to cooperate with enterprises and non-profit organisations in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), as a way to expand Oxfam’s poverty alleviation efforts to the poorer regions of mainland China.
Both male and female winners shatter records
The male category of the Full-run Challenge was won by Fabio Ruga from Italy, completing the race in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, followed by Soh Wai Ching (Malaysia) and Ryoji Watanabe (Japan). In the female category, the winner was Japanese athlete Yuko Tateishi, who finished the race in 9 minutes and 10 seconds, while the second and third places were secured respectively by Le Qinghua (mainland China) and Kamila Chomaničová (Slovakia). Both the male and female winners broke the local Full-run challenge records, the statement said.
The male and female Full-run Challenge champions won 300 euros (2,558 patacas) each.
Athletes of the female Full-run Challenge group start their competition in yesterday’s “Oxfam TowerRun” at Macau Tower. – Photos: Gabriel Tam
Medallists of the male Full-run Challenge, including first place Fabio Ruga (centre), second placed Soh Wai Ching (far left) and 3rd placed Ryoji Watanabe (far right), pose with their trophies and symbolic prize cheques, together with two Oxfam officials, during the awards ceremony of yesterday’s “Oxfam TowerRun”.
