MALAYSIAN tower-running world champion Soh Wai Ching is aiming to break the seven-minute barrier when he competes in the Komtar Tower Run this Sunday, after setting a Malaysia Book of Records mark at the iconic Penang landmark last Saturday.
Soh, 32, clocked seven minutes and two seconds to climb the 68-storey Komtar Tower, covering 1,356 steps, in a solo record attempt on Aug 29.
The achievement came just two days before he set another Malaysia Book of Records mark by completing the Penang Hill Heritage Trail in 25 minutes and 55.25 seconds.
Unlike Sunday’s event, last Saturday’s climb was not a race. Soh made the attempt alone, supported by a small team, while an official from the Malaysia Book of Records was present to verify the timing.
Soh said he had deliberately combined the Komtar record attempt with the Penang Hill challenge as part of his Merdeka celebrations.
“I wanted to do two records in 48 hours,” he said.
For the Komtar attempt, Soh improved on his previous benchmark of seven minutes and 19 seconds, which he had recorded previously but which had not been officially recognised as a Malaysia Book of Records achievement.
The new mark of 7:02 is now official.
Soh, however, is not satisfied.
He plans to return to Komtar this Sunday for the Komtar Tower Run, where about 300 participants are expected to compete, and believes the race environment could give him a chance to go even faster.
“I’m hoping to break seven this coming Sunday,” he said.
Soh expects the race to be different from his solo record attempt because he will be competing against other runners rather than simply chasing the clock.
“I will be more ready to race,” he said.
The Komtar climb involves a largely consistent indoor environment, making it markedly different from Soh’s Penang Hill record attempt.
According to Soh, Komtar’s staircases have relatively uniform steps and are protected from weather conditions. Penang Hill, by contrast, presented constantly changing terrain, including cement, tar and trail sections, as well as uneven step heights.
“Komtar Tower is way easier,” Soh said, rating the challenge around four or five out of 10, compared with eight or nine out of 10 for Penang Hill.
The Komtar Tower Run course is 68 floors, although published tower-running records list the full course at 1,381 stairs and 249 metres of elevation gain.
For Soh, the key to Sunday’s race will be maintaining his pace before pushing hard over the final 10 floors.
He said the main challenge in an actual race would be managing the presence of hundreds of runners, although he expects to start at the front and therefore avoid much of the congestion.
Soh’s back-to-back record attempts have also highlighted the different demands of tower running and trail running.
While the Komtar climb requires controlled pacing and consistency on stairs, Penang Hill forced him to react quickly to changing terrain and environmental conditions.
Expected to lend him support at Komtar will be his wife, Chan Yi Chin, 32, from George Town, and their nine-month-old son, Victor Soh Yi Sheng.
Chan herself was once ranked among the top 20 tower runners in the world.
Over the past eight years, Soh has established himself as a dominant force in tower running, recording victories at major skyscraper races, including back-to-back wins at the Empire State Building Run-Up in 2021 and 2022, the 2024 Tower Running World Championships at Taipei 101, the 2025 US National Championship in Chicago and the 2025 Australian National Championship in Melbourne.
Soh claimed the 2024 world title at the Taipei 101 with an overall time of 18 minutes and 36.62 seconds, covering the first round of 91 floors in 11:35.61 and the second round of 59 floors in 7:01.01.
The achievement earned him a top prize of about 3,000 euros.
“I’m a competitive person, and I tell people that tower-running is a sport that Malaysia can dominate.
“I want our people to be the best in the world, and make Malaysia known. Not just fight to be jaguh kampung (a local champion).
“I always strive to put the Malaysian flag on top of the podium. Not just for tower running, but for anything good,” he said.
Soh’s journey to becoming a world champion came unexpectedly.
A Scottish friend challenged him to take part in the KL Tower International Towerthon Challenge in 2017 after having lost to Soh numerous times in road running.
In his final year at Universiti Malaya, where he was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Sports Science, majoring in Exercise Science, Soh studied, analysed and trained for tower running.
After just one month of preparation, he performed well and even beat his friend in the challenge.
From then on, he became hooked on tower running.
In 2019, he founded the Malaysia Towerrunning Association (MTA) together with a group of passionate tower runners and became a spokesperson for the sport.
With tower running yet to gain widespread popularity in Malaysia, Soh is a self-funded, full-time tower-running athlete who seeks sponsors on his own to support his career.
Last year, Soh competed in 34 championships, following a record 38 the year before – the highest number of competitions he has participated in to date. His tower-running career has taken him to 40 countries.
“There are over 300 tower-running championships in the world per year, with 150 in China alone.
“This is because there are many high-rise buildings everywhere, and one of the easiest ways to promote a high-rise is to hold a tower-running competition, which will also promote sports tourism,” he said.
He cited the IHH Sky Race at Menara Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 22 this year, which attracted 8,000 participants from 78 nations, including 1,000 from overseas.
Soh finished runner-up to Japanese Ryoji Watanabe at the race, clocking 15:48 against Watanabe’s 15:38. However, Soh still holds the record of 15:37 he set in 2025.
Another outstanding achievement came on July 19, 2025, when Soh smashed the Guinness World Record by climbing a stair machine for a simulated distance of 1.788 kilometres in one hour — equivalent to climbing the Petronas Twin Towers four times in 60 minutes. He surpassed the previous record of 1.74km held by Britain’s David Mahoney.
“I live on the 41st storey of a 50-storey apartment, and that is my training ground.
“Moreover, I have a StairMaster machine at home and can train whether there is haze or without haze,” he said.
Soh has also won the 10km Open category at the Penang International Bridge Marathon three times as the best local runner.
Now, with another race approaching, Soh has set himself a simple target — to become the first man to run up Komtar in under seven minutes.
For Soh, the Komtar challenge is more than another personal milestone. It is also part of his effort to showcase tower running to Malaysians and inspire more people to test themselves in the sport.
Story by K.H. Ong