Jenny Li and Thomas Dold win the 2008 Taipei 101 Run Up

June 15, 2008 Different from the past three years, 2008 the 4th-annual Taipei 101 Run Up was held earlier in the top half of 2008 today (June 15). Approximately 2,500 people, world-class runners, corporate teams and individual people, participated in the challenge to climb 2046 steps (390 meters height), 91 floors at this race. Chinese Taipei Road Running Association (CTRRA), the race organizer, set up the "ChampionChip" timing system and recruited several local volunteers for the floor service from vast industries.

Sport volunteers have become a must-have trend in several world-class games such as Boston Marathon, New York City Marathon, Paris Marathon, and Asian Games, ..., etc. For example, since we [the CTRRA] started the initiation of volunteer recruitment on 2004 ING Taipei Marathon, a good practice of volunteer service was established and developed. I hope this practice can be devoted not only in this game, or not only in Taiwan. Australian cyclist Paul Crake was paralyzed from a spinal injury, suffered in New Zealand in 2006, and Austrian runner Andrea Mayr wasn't able to retain her title in this race, the state of Elite Group became more and more uncertain although several international media focused on competitions between Italian runner Marco De Gasperi and German runner Thomas Dold.

Finally, Thomas Dold defeated Marco De Gasperi by 46 seconds with a time of 10 min and 53 seconds in the Men's Elite Group, Taiwanese runner Jenny Hsiao-yu Li got her first title in Women's Elite Group with a time of 14 min and 53 seconds, and Taipei City Fire Department still retained their title in Enterprise Group in this race.

After the race, Jenny Li spoke to media about this race: "The re-arrangement of the race must be a critical factor to cause the actual strengths of elite runners changed rapidly. Not only did I, but some of [elite] runners also regressed on their score." In addition, Stephen M. Young, Director of the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan, also commented this race to media: "When participating in this race, a regular mental condition should be developed. Don't think too much! Just do the best. If fully prepared, a great result will be accomplished."