Since the first Swissôtel Vertical Marathon, the race has attracted top international and local athletes such as Thomas Dold, Ben Pulham, Adrian Mok, Pedro Ribeiro and Australia's Suzanne Elizabeth Walsham and Jeremy Horne.

The Swissôtel Vertical Marathon 2009 promises to be an even more challenging and competitive race to the top!

Thomas Dold - World-class stair racer Thomas Dold broke the 20-year-old Vertical Marathon record by 3 seconds, with his winning time of 6min 52secs at the Swissôtel Vertical Marathon 2008! Thomas, a leading German athlete also broke the Guinness Book of World Records timing of 6min 55secs, set by Mr Balvinder Singh in 1989. This reigning champion has scored seven consecutive victories in the seven international vertical marathons that he has competed in this year. These were held in New York, Milan, Berlin, Spain, Stuttgart, Taipei and Singapore. Known as the world's best male stair racer, Thomas has won the prestigious Empire State Building Run-up in the past 4 years and the Taipei 101 Run-up in 2009.       Suzanne Elizabeth Walsham - Champion in 2006, 2007 and 2008, Suzanne went on to win the Empire State Building Run-up in 2007, 2008 and 2009. A native of Australia residing in Singapore, she represented Australia in the 2006 Commonwealth Games.       Pedro Ribeiro - Pedro rose above fierce competition to become the Champion in Swissôtel Vertical Marathon in 2003, 2005 and 2006. He conquered the Empire State building in 4th place in 2008 and 10th place in 2004. An engineer based in Macau, Pedro will be flying in from Macau to compete again. Witness Pedro fly up the stairway onto the helipad of Swissôtel!       Adrian Mok - Adrian finished 3rd in this event in 2004 and is no new comer to endurance races - an adventurer racer, marathoner, ironman.       Ben Pulham - Hailing from New Zealand, Ben is a full time triathlete based in Singapore. Ranked 112th in the World Triathlon ranking, Ben won the race in a blistering time of 7min 34secs in 2004.       Jeremy Horne - Meet Jeremy Horne - 1999 New South Wales Distance Runner of the Year, 2002 Australian Marathon Champion, 3rd in 2000 World Stair Running Championship, 2003 Champion in the Sydney Center Point Tower Run-up and Australia's representative in the 2006 World Marathon Teams Championship, Jeremy is eyeing nothing less than a ticket to New York to compete in the Empire State run up.