Malaysian wins tower race up more than 1,500 steps at Empire State Building

Malaysian Soh Wai Ching has won this year's Empire State Building Run-Up, an annual tower race held at the Empire State Building in New York City, clinching the title of world number one. 

Soh, who was sponsored by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ), finished the climb in 10 minutes and 44 seconds, beating Ryoji Watanabe from Japan (10:57), Fabio Ruga of Italy (11:19), Germany's Goerge Heimann (11:40) and Omar Bekkali of the Netherlands (12:03).

Soh, the previous defending champion, was also named overall champion at the 44th edition of the Oct 6 race.

"We sponsored him because although he is a hardworking and dedicated young man of world ranking, he could not get anyone to sponsor him," MBPJ councillor Derek Fernandez said. 

"He has made us proud." 

Soh graduated from Universiti Malaya with a degree in sports science.

The Empire State Building Run-Up sees participants racing for the best time up 86 flights of stairs – a total of 1,576 steps.