Stepping Up to New Heights

Walking into the atrium at the base of Central Park Tower you could sense that this year was different. It was still only 7am and an hour before the first climbers were to set off but the place was buzzing with volunteers and keen participants – there was a real positive energy.

Since 2010, when the Perth Stair Climb moved to the Central Park Tower, Jenny and her team at MS WA have consistently aimed to create the best stair climbing event in Australia and we can confidently say that this year was no exception. A big thank you needs to go to all the volunteers who made the day run extremely well. Many new additions were present at the starting line to make sure everyone was kept entertained and the live streaming from the rooftop was definitely a great watch.

For the first time in the climb’s history, in fact in any climb that we are aware of, the maximum number of participants was reached 1.5 days from the event. 1103 for every step of the race, to be exact, registered with 877 completing the climb on the day.

Given the large participation it was no surprise that the target of $200,000 was easily reached with over $238,000 raised in total for MS research!

The race record holder from last year, Darren Wilson, and Neil Berry, the winner of the race the 3 times previous were not present this year and with Adam Ryan, runner-up twice, injured, the title for the number one place was open to anyone.

Ry Klose unknowingly rose to the challenge with a time of 6:41mins, the forth fastest time recorded for this race. This was also his first stair climb who he entered with several other mates. Second for consecutive years was Chris Price with a time of 7:08mins and third was Stephen Wishart, a teammate of Ry’s, in 7:09mins, just 1sec behind! The first female across the line was Melissa Cook in a time of 8:52mins.

With Cheerleaders, BBQs and big screens it’s going to be interesting to see what the MS guys have up their sleeve for next year. Either way it’s going to be exciting.