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Runners to climb 40 floors of Cologne’s tallest office building in staircase race

More than 1,000 runners are expected to take part in the race up the 40 floors of the Cologne Tower, the city's tallest office building, in Sunday's Staircase Championship.

Published: 25 August 2024 09:06 CEST

The 148.50-metre Cologne Tower in Cologne

The 148.50-metre Cologne Tower, the cathedral city's tallest office building. Photo: Metro Centric on Flickr.

Competitors – who include staircase novices, competitive athletes, 8-year-olds and 91-year-olds – will have to climb over 732 steps in the race up to the 40th floor (one more floor than last year) of the 148.50-metre tower in the 12th edition of the event.

Participants can enter individually, as teams or as fire brigade teams in full protective gear. More than 21 different nationalities have registered for the event. Runners will get a breather from the stairs at the top as they come back down in the lift.

It’s set to be an exciting battle for the win as defending champion Andreas Fruhmann is returning in a bid to retain his crown.

The 45-year-old from Leverkusen will face local hero Görge Heimann, who is 11 years his senior.

Verena Schmitz from Konstanz will also try to defend her championship title of fastest woman from the previous two years. The 30-year-old will be competing against Monica Carl, who came second last year.

As well as the German favourites, top international athletes Omar Bekkali from Belgium and Canadian Adele Blaise-Sohnius, who lives in Siegburg, will also be taking part in the race in the cathedral city.

The fastest runners will make it up the stairs in under four minutes, while the record for firefighters in gear is just over six minutes. The races start at 11am.

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Cosplay and queues at gamers gathering in Cologne

“We’ll have to run,” said Mark Nass, a 20-year-old German who queued from 6:30 am outside the glass and steel Kölnmesse convention centre.

Nass was among many aiming to be first in line to play “Monster Hunter Wilds”, one of the most popular games at the annual Gamescom gathering.

The event serves as a celebration for fans, who get sneak peaks at new releases and chats with developers while spending time with like-minded folk.

But it is also a massive deal for the industry.

Although Microsoft is dominating this year’s event, hundreds of smaller companies are battling for a share of the attention.

Visitors play the 'Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn' online game developed and published by Square Enix during the media day at the Gamescom video games trade fair in Cologne, western Germany on August 21, 2024.

Visitors play the ‘Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’ online game developed and published by Square Enix during the media day at the Gamescom video games trade fair in Cologne, western Germany on August 21, 2024. – Photo by Ina FASSBENDER / AFP

‘A bit like Cannes’

Marina Diez from German independent studio BTF was showing off the game “The Berlin Apartment”.

“We’re showcasing it in a big event for the first time, before releasing the next year,” she told AFP.

She said getting opinions from players at the conference was vital to feed into the game design.

The stakes are getting higher for smaller studios, who rely on making deals with publishers to get their games out into the world.

But publishers are also struggling as major financial backers shift their focus to AI and other sectors.

Thousands have been laid off and many studios have shut down.

Gamescom gives creators a chance to do deals and secure vital funding.

“It’s a bit like the Cannes Film Festival in terms of business,” said David Rabineau, director of the Parisian independent studio Homo Ludens.

Mario vs Poppy

Crowds swelled on the conference floor during Thursday, the first day the public were allowed into the event, which runs until Sunday.

Shouts and applause erupted periodically from behind high partitions separating the stands from the alleyways, as attendees got to see trailers and snippets of gameplay.

Long queues formed in front of the “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” stand to get these invaluable titbits.

At other stands, attendees were able to play new games — some that have not been released yet.

Waiting patiently in the queue for “Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO”, 25-year-old German Lars was decked out in a red cap, blue overalls and a fake moustache.

“Everyone likes Mario! I like him because I used to play it when I was a kid,” he said.

But at an event expected to attract 370,000 attendees, some players were inevitably going to miss out on their number one game.

“I hoped to play ‘Monster Hunter Wilds’ but it was already full,” said Ype, a 28-year-old Dutchman decked out as Poppy from “League of Legends”, with pointed ears, blue face and two-metre-long hammer.

But he was not going to let that disappointment deter him.

“It’s cool to discover new games and meet people,” he said, before heading elsewhere to test the latest “Warhammer” release.

By Kilian Fichou

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