Wings for Life World Run

The Wings for Life World Run is a running competition held on the first weekend of May since 2014 to collect funds for the not-for-profit foundation Wings for Life. The entry fee goes completely to the foundation.

The Wings for Life World Run is particular in that participants don't have to run a specific distance like in comparable competitions. A car rides on the track half an hour after the start. Overtaken participants are eliminated until just one, the winner, remains.

Another characteristic is that the run takes place in 34 or 35 locations around the Earth at the same time.

The Wings for Life World Run is broadcast live on Red Bull TV.

The Wings for Life Foundation and the Wings for Life World Run

The not-for-profit foundation Wings for Life was established by the two-time motocross world champion Heinz Kinigadner and the Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz in 2004.^[1] Its goal is to find a treatment for spinal cord injuries and paraplegia. Therefore, the foundation supports research and studies about spinal cord and spinal cord injuries financially. Anita Gerhardter is CEO. Founder Kinigadner himself is concerned because his brother and his son, both motocross riders too, are bounded to wheelchairs after injuries.^[2]

After two years of preparations the first Wings for Life World Run was started on May 4, 2014 to raise funds and at the same time arouse attention on limitations and medical problems of paraplegic persons. Following the success of the first edition the race is now an annual event. According to the official Website the idea to organize a worldwide race where the last man standing would be the winner, came during a lay-over at the airport in Moscow.

The race is open to everybody, professionals as well as members or non-members of running clubs. The entry fee is donated entirely to the foundation, the main sponsor Red Bull covers the costs of the event. The fees vary somewhat depending on the choice of location and the time of sign up. 40.00 GBP are due to take part in Great Britain, 50.00 USD to take part in the United States, but it is also possible to augment the donation during the registration process. So far 3 million and 4.2 million euro of donation have been collected in the two first editions.^[1]

The Motto of the race is:

"Running for those who can’t."

"World" Run

The name Wings for Life World Run comes from the fact that the race takes place in 34 or 35 different locations around the Earth at the same time. That means that runners in Europe or Africa run around noon while participants in Asia and Australia in the afternoon or evening. In the Americas the race is early in the morning or even during the night.

The "Catcher Car"

The Wings for Life World Run is outstanding because there is no prescribed distance to cover for example 10 kilometers or 42.195 km like in a marathon. Thus runners of very different levels can equally take part.

100 km are prepared at each location. All participants start at the same time, a so-called "Catcher Car" rides on the track 30 minutes after the start. The speed is 15 km/h at first and increases step by step. Once a runner is overtaken by the car, the race is finished for him. Busses bring eliminated participants back to the start area. Thus what counts on the sport side is not the time needed to cover a given distance but the distance covered before the Catcher Car overtakes one.^[3]

The last remaining female and male runners at each locations are the local Wings for Life World Run winners and gain the right to start the following year at a location of their choice. The woman and man that ran the longest distance worldwide are the Wings for Life World Run Global Champions and are rewarded with a trip around the world as special prize.^[4]

The conditions and tracks vary quite a lot. The Catcher Cars are steered precisely using global satellite navigation hence a comparison between the different locations is nonetheless possible. The following table show how fast the car rides at what time after the start and how far it is at each speed change.

Wings for Life World Run 2014

The first Wings for Life World Run took place on May 4, 2014 in 34 locations around the Earth. The start was given at 10:00 UTC everywhere. The British track and field world champion Colin Jackson was race director.^[6]

The competition became a success. Especially the men's race for the global title was very close. In the end Lemawork Ketema from Ethiopia won with 78.58 km he ran in Austria. That distance was just 90 m more than the Peruvian Remigio Huaman Quispe who ran in Lima and 180 m more than Evgenii Glyva from Ukraine who ran in Austria together with Ketema.

Elise Selvikvåg Molvik from Norway covered 54.79 km in Stavanger to claim the women's global championship. It is worth mentioning that, according to the official website, she was just 18 years old at that time and had never run more than 30 km in competition. 54.79 km meant also the 42nd place in the combined male and female ranking. Nathalie Vasseur from France became second with 51.26 km in Hennebont, the Moldovian Svetlana Shepeleva became third with 48.29 km in Alanya.^[7]

All in all 35397 men and women, among them several celebrities like Mark Webber and Aksel Lund Svindal, took part and ran 530928 km together.^[8]

Male winners of the Wings for Life World Run 2014 ^[9]

Location	Winner	Age group	Distance (in km)	Global rank
Alanya	Murat Kaya	M40	55.93	38
Auckland	Braden Currie	M25	45.34	140
Barcelona	Chema Martinez	M40	55.56	40
Bratislava	Boris Csiba	M30	50.22	68
Bucharest	Eugen Constantin Sorop	M25	58.86	21
Busselton	David Kennedy	M35	43.89	168
Cancún	Crisanto Grajales	M25	43.17	185
Cape Town	Coolboy Ngamole	M35	59.88	16
Comporta	António Sousa	M40	46.82	119
Darmstadt	Markus Mockenhaupt	M30	56.87	32
Denver	Hunter Paris	M30	55.37	41
Donautal	Lemawork Ketema	M25	78.58	1
Drenthe	Fréderique Lotin	M25	54.31	44
Florianópolis	Cesar Miguel Momesso dos Santos	M30	44.78	151
Haryana	Isaac Kipernoi	M25	41.11	250
Hennebont	Thibaut Baronian	M25	59.35	18
Hualien	Chih Chun Li	M35	48.05	103
Kakheti	Anatoli Oleinikovi	M30	52.65	53
Kalmar	Thomas Pechhacker	M30	50.50	65
Kerry	John O'Regan	M45	49.24	76
Lima	Remigio Huaman Quispe	M30	78.49	2
Ljubljana	David Plese	M30	59.74	17
Olten	Marco Kaminski	M50	56.51	34
Pinamar	Ignacio Ilarregui	M35	57.08	31
Poznań	Grzegorz Urbańczyk	M25	49.08	77
Prairies	Ryan King	M25	46.79	120
Santa Clarita	Calum Neff	M30	58.52	22
Santiago	Pablo Gonzalez	M35	57.40	30
Silverstone	Paul Martelletti	M35	69.37	5
Stavanger	Svein Ove Risa	M40	63.36	12
Sunrise	Michael Wardian	M40	57.75	27
Verona	Giorgio Calcaterra	M40	72.96	4
Ypres	Wouter Decock	M30	65.11	7
Zadar	Goran Murić	M30	49.52	73

Female winners of the Wings for Life World Run 2014 ^[9]

Location	Winner	Age group	Distance (in km)	Global rank
Alanya	Svetlana Shepeleva	F45	48.29	3
Auckland	Antonia Elliot	F25	31.38	94
Barcelona	Miriam Garcia Heredia	F30	42.91	11
Bratislava	Jana Zatlukalová	F25	39.26	24
Bucarest	Liliana Maria Danci	F18	39.03	25
Busselton	Laoise Thuama	F25	36.30	39
Cancún	Anahi Inzunza	F25	26.99	213
Cape Town	Mfunzi Ntombesintu	F30	47.57	4
Comporta	Mária Santos	F35	25.35	321
Darmstadt	Lea Bäuscher	F30	46.23	5
Denver	Erlena Josifi	F18	33.53	66
Donautal	Julia Moser	F18	34.87	53
Drenthe	Linda Vliet	F25	31.75	85
Florianópolis	Ana Borba	F30	37.40	30
Haryana	Wahida Raheman	F25	29.17	137
Hennebont	Nathalie Vasseur	F45	51.26	2
Hualien	汪, 旖文	F30	29.58	127
Kakheti	Marielle Carmagnolle	F55	25.34	323
Kalmar	Maria Lundgren	F40	45.24	9
Kerry	Alison Kirwan	F30	30.19	115
Lima	Ayde Quispe Ortiz	F18	40.83	17
Ljubljana	Sylvie Tramoy	F40	33.82	62
Olten	Daniela Ryf	F25	44.44	10
Pinamar	Laura Gordiola	F40	36.56	34
Poznań	Aga Głomb	F18	38.81	27
Prairies	Chrissy Magneson	F25	32.97	69
Santa Clarita	Jeannie Rutherford	F35	35.64	46
Santiago	Gabriela Cerda	F18	31.82	83
Silverstone	Joanna Zakrzewski	F35	45.39	7
Stavanger	Elise Selvikvåg Molvik	F18	54.79	1
Sunrise	Haley Chura	F25	45.61	6
Verona	Astrid Kaltenboeck	F40	35.49	48
Ypres	Nele Louwagie	F35	34.68	54
Zadar	Kimberly ReMine	F18	41.02	16

Wings for Life World Run 2015

The second edition of the Wings for Life World Run was held on May 3, 2015 in 35 locations. This year the start was given at 11:00 UTC. The race director was as in the year before the British track and field world champion Colin Jackson.^[10]

This year 72,224 women and men, among them again numerous internationally known sportsmen like Marcel Hirscher and Gregor Schlierenzauer, started. Aksel Lund Svindal, who ran in 2014, drove the Catcher Car in Stavanger this time. Like him some other celibrities did the same for example Felix Baumgartner (in Bucharest) and David Coulthard (in Silverstone).^[1]

Concerning the sport side, the two best of the preceding edition Lemawork Ketema and Remigio Huaman Quispe ran at the same location in Austria. Ketema improved his performance up to 79.90 km and remained global champion. Quispe ran nearly as far as in 2014, namely 78.20 km, for a third place worldwide. The race developed again to a duel over distance, this time with the Chilian César Díaz Hernández, who became second with 78.31 km in Santiago, and with Giorgio Calcaterra who repeated his win in Italy and improved quite a lot up to 78.06 km (4th global rank).

Elise Molvik, global champion in 2014, ran again in Stavanger. She claimed the local title but 45.02 km were far from the worldwide best women. The podium was Yuuko Watanabe from Japan (56.33 km in Takashima), Riana van Niekerk from South Africa with 55.21 km in Cape Town and Nathalie Vasseur (second in 2014) with 52.18 km in Sunrise this year. All in all just 81 men ran further than the first woman.

Male winners of the Wings for Life World Run 2015 ^[11]

Location	Winner	Age group	Distance (in km)	Global rank
Aarhus	Brian Hansen	M30	61.48	37
Alanya	Jose Requejo Santos	M30	68.04	18
Aranjuez – Madrid	Chema Martinez	M40	59.19	48
Brasilia	Juan Pablo de Lima Costa Salazar	M35	52.61	122
Bratislava	Philipp Aigner	M25	68.65	16
Breda	Kevin Pletz	M18	50.29	172
Bucharest	Wouter Decock	M30	61.72	36
Cape Town	Eric Ngubane	M30	68.86	14
Darmstadt	Florian Neuschwander	M30	74.56	6
Dubai	Sami Al Saidi	M30	44.92	323
Dublin	David Sheehy	M35	52.64	121
Gurgaon	Amit Dhankar	M18	57.38	70
Kakheti	Anatoli Oleinikovi	M30	57.39	69
Kalmar – Öland	Aron Anderson	M25	64.82	30
Kolomna – Moscow	Nikolay Yanalov	M30	70.19	11
Lima	Emerson Trujillo Flores	M30	72.15	9
Ljubljana	Robert Radojkovic	M30	69.36	13
Melbourne	Michael Wardian	M40	70.66	10
Munich	Matthias Baur	M18	61.10	41
Niagara Falls	Blaine Penny	M40	65.41	26
Niederösterreich	Lemawork Ketema	M25	79.90	1
Olten	Michael Boch	M30	70.14	12
Porto	Daniel Pinheiro	M30	67.39	20
Poznań	Bartosz Olszewski	M30	73.46	8
Rouen	Simon Munyutu	M35	73.51	7
Santa Clarita	Thibaut Baronian	M25	55.15	90
Santiago	César Díaz Hernández	M25	78.31	2
Silverstone	Thomas Payn	M35	61.09	42
Stavanger	Jarle Risa	M35	58.80	50
Sunrise	Svein Risa	M40	54.88	93
Takashima	Kazuhiko Oki	M25	67.68	19
Verona	Giorgio Calcaterra	M40	78.06	4
Yilan	Chih Pin Su	M35	57.62	66
Ypres	Pieter Rijnders	M35	61.99	35
Zadar	Matija Grabrovečki	M35	57.36	71

Female winners of the Wings for Life World Run 2015 ^[11]

Location	Winner	Age group	Distance (in km)	Global rank
Aarhus	Lone Nielsen	F35	48.97	10
Alanya	Svetlana Shepeleva	F45	50.31	8
Aranjuez – Madrid	Mª Cruz Parras Morcillo	F25	31.89	193
Brasilia	Astrid Kaltenböck	F40	44.28	22
Bratislava	Romana Komarnanska	F25	41.85	30
Breda	Sandra Laros	F40	37.70	60
Bucharest	Liliana Danci	F18	45.76	17
Cape Town	Riana van Niekerk	F35	55.21	2
Darmstadt	Laura Chacon Biebach	F25	51.78	4
Dubai	Katie Sloane	F25	30.08	281
Dublin	Orna Dilworth	F30	39.54	45
Gurgaon	Linah Chirchir	F25	44.90	20
Kakheti	Linda Vliet	F35	32.01	191
Kalmar – Öland	Frida Södermark	F35	42.09	29
Kolomna – Moscow	Irina Antropova	F30	51.33	5
Lima	Rocio Carrion	F45	35.13	107
Ljubljana	Žana Jereb	F30	45.05	18
Melbourne	Kelly-Ann Varey	F35	50.75	7
Munich	Ingalena Heuck	F25	49.54	9
Niagara Falls	Lyne Bessette	F40	47.44	13
Niederösterreich	Bernadette Schuster	F30	47.06	15
Olten	Karen Sobrino	F40	43.04	24
Porto	Doroteia Peixoto	F30	41.70	32
Poznań	Dominika Stelmach	F30	41.84	31
Rouen	Leaharna Marsden	F30	35.93	95
Santa Clarita	Shannon Rahlves	F40	37.01	72
Santiago	Karen Torrealba	F30	47.68	12
Silverstone	Kate Carter	F35	34.73	115
Stavanger	Elise Molvik	F18	45.02	19
Sunrise	Nathalie Vasseur	F45	52.18	3
Takashima	Yuuko Watanabe	F25	56.33	1
Verona	Chiara Moras	F30	39.48	46
Yilan	Pei-Yu Cheng	F25	37.45	64
Ypres	Deborah Ghyselen	F25	40.63	38
Zadar	Nikolina Šustić	F25	48.15	11

Wings for Life World Run 2016

On May 8, 2016 11:00 UTC the Wings for Life World Run had his third edition. As in 2014 there were 34 locations, among them two in the USA. Colin Jackson was again the race director. The Catcher Cars were driven by international stars like in the years before.^[12][13]

130,732 runners took part worldwide and covered more than 1.2 million kilometers. In addition there were 20,556 so-called "Selfie Runners", that is people not running at one of the 34 locations and simulating the catcher cars with an app on their mobile phones. The foundation collected 6.6 million euros.^[14][15]

The Italian ultrarunner Giorgio Calcaterra won for the third time in Italy and took the global title this time too. He improved the record a lot with 88.44 km which meant that for the first time the Catcher Car had to accelerate to the top speed of 35 km/h to overtake him. The worldwide podium was completed by Bartosz Olszewski from Poland, who also ran over 80 km in Canada, and the Chilean Francisco Morales. Lemawork Ketema, global champion in 2014 and 2015, ran again in Austria. For a long time he was side by side with Evgenii Glyva like in 2014. However Ketema decided to stop after 41 km not to compromise his form in view of other races.

A lot of top performances were set in Takashima in Japan. That was also the location for the global champion in the female race like in 2015. Kaori Yoshida set a new record with 65.71 km, an improvement of 9.38 km and an 18th place in the combined men and women classification. The following places went to the Austrian Karin Freitag with 59.08 km in Munich and to Vera Nunes from Portugal with 58.86 km. Last year's winner Yuuko Watanabe covered nearly exactly the same distance as in 2015 with 56.37 km, the global fifth place.

Male winners of the Wings for Life World Run 2016 ^[16]

Location	Winner	Age group	Distance (in km)	Global rank
Aarhus	Mikkel Kleis	M35	56.80	64
Ahmedabad	Titus Kariuki Wanderi Githu	M35	54.16	90
Brasilia	Thomas Payn	M35	56.52	66
Bratislava	Gabriel Švajda	M30	54.15	91
Breda	Emerson Trujillo	M30	64.41	23
Cambridge	Steve Way	M40	63.75	27
Dubai	Hélder Santos	M30	54.34	87
Dublin	Paul Martelletti	M35	73.77	6
Guadalajara	Gabriel Morfin Torres	M35	59.05	52
Izmir	Ahmet Bayram	M40	52.78	109
Kakheti	Liviu Croitoru	M25	56.02	74
Kalmar – Öland	Pétur Bjarnason	M35	57.95	56
Kolomna – Moscow	Ivan Motorin	M30	67.37	15
Lima	Charles Jhon Ayala Escribas	M35	63.91	25
Ljubljana	Vid Senica	M35	64.58	21
Melbourne	Barry Keem	M35	65.71	18
Milan	Giorgio Calcaterra	M40	88.44	1
Munich	Florian Neuschwander	M30	63.66	28
Niagara Falls	Bartosz Olszewski	M30	82.42	2
Olten	Stefan Lüscher	M35	57.63	58
Porto	António Sousa	M45	69.46	10
Poznań	Tomasz Walerowicz	M30	71.12	9
Pretoria	Thibaut Baronian	M25	62.84	31
Rouen	Teddy Bezancon	M30	59.29	50
Santa Clarita	Samuel Bradbury	M35	60.80	42
Santiago	Francisco Morales	M25	75.47	3
Stavanger	Yoann Stuck	M30	61.85	33
Sunrise	Simon Munyutu	M35	61.54	36
Takashima	Nakajima Hiroki	M25	74.51	5
Valencia	Jarle Risa	M35	65.51	20
Vienna	Evgenii Glyva	M30	68.00	13
Yilan	Yi-Hsun Li	M30	56.84	63
Ypres	Stefan Van den Broek	M40	65.64	19
Zadar	Dejan Patrčević	M40	56.35	70

Female winners of the Wings for Life World Run 2016 ^[16]

Location	Winner	Age group	Distance (in km)	Global rank
Aarhus	Camilla Christensen	F18	38.20	71
Ahmedabad	Kiranjit Kaur	F25	39.21	63
Brasilia	Leticia Saltori	F25	51.09	16
Bratislava	Petra Fašungová	F25	40.30	52
Breda	Diana Golek	F30	38.91	65
Cambridge	Caitriona Jennings	F35	55.08	9
Dubai	Carolina Gutierrez	F30	21.52	1448
Dublin	Sarah Mulligan	F25	45.64	32
Guadalajara	Rosalva Gudiño Gonzalez	F35	37.40	81
Izmir	Svetlana Shepeleva	F45	45.74	30
Kakheti	Yana Khmeleva	F35	34.93	119
Kalmar – Öland	Linnea Winberg	F30	40.14	54
Kolomna – Moscow	Elena Nurgalieva	F40	55.39	7
Lima	Jessica Gabriela Paz Rodríguez	F18	35.36	109
Ljubljana	Lucija Krkoč	F25	50.84	17
Melbourne	Dominika Stelmach	F30	55.25	8
Milan	Katia Chiara Figini	F40	51.61	15
Munich	Karin Freitag	F35	59.08	2
Niagara Falls	Doroteia Peixoto	F30	55.44	6
Olten	Pamela Veith	F40	39.60	58
Porto	Vera Nunes	F35	58.86	3
Poznań	Agnieszka Janasiak	F35	39.94	56
Pretoria	Onneile Dintwe	F30	52.71	11
Rouen	Anna Wasik	F30	43.44	38
Santa Clarita	Maibritt Daugaard	F30	49.45	20
Santiago	Frida Södermark	F35	52.37	12
Stavanger	Nikolina Šustić	F25	50.03	19
Sunrise	Nathalie Vasseur	F50	54.53	10
Takashima	Kaori Yoshida	F30	65.71	1
Valencia	Cristina Gonzalez Garcia	F30	46.31	28
Vienna	Cornelia Moser	F18	56.88	4
Yilan	Yafen Ya	F25	37.92	75
Ypres	Rebecca Nkapiani	F40	35.91	101
Zadar	Katarina Lovrantova	F30	45.55	33

Wings for Life World Run 2017

The fourth edition was held on May 7th, 2017. 155,288 women and men stood on the start lines of 25 locations.
The paraplegic athlete Aron Anderson from Sweden raced a new record distance of 92.14 km in a "normal" wheelchair (race wheelchairs are not allowed) and despite the heat of Dubai. Dominika Stelmach from Poland also set a new record performance in the women's competition with 68.21 km in Santiago.

6.8 million euros were collected for the foundation.

Male winners of the Wings for Life World Run 2017 ^[17]

Location	Winner	Age group	Distance (in km)	Global rank
Brasília	Luis Felipe Leite Barboza	M25	58.88	67
Bratislava	Marek Mockovčiak	M35	62.95	47
Breda	Philipp Aigner	M25	71.37	8
Cambridge	Jacek Cieluszecki	M35	68.8	12
Dubai	Aron Anderson	M25	92.14	1
Guadalajara	Roberto Meier	M25	68.14	18
Izmir	Veysi Aslan	M30	57.51	77
Kakheti	Giorgi Shekrelidze	M35	35.43	1741
Kalmar/Öland	Elov Olsson	M25	75.05	7
Kolomna	Shishov Konstantin	M30	70.39	9
Ljubljana	Ivan Motorin	M30	62.13	52
Melbourne	Teddy Bezancon	M30	70.22	10
Milan	Bartosz Olszewski	M30	88.24	2
Munich	Sebastian Hallmann	M40	68.47	15
Olten	Sylvère Pruvost	M30	68.11	19
Poznan	Tomasz Walerowicz	M35	85.14	5
Pretoria	Renier Grobler	M30	63.07	42
Santa Clarita, CA	Dan Berteletti	M30	69	11
Santiago	Manuelito Figueroa	M30	67.41	21
Stavanger	Emerson Trujillo	M35	67.43	20
Sunrise, FL	Calum Neff	M30	65.66	30
Tainan	Chih Chun Li	M40	52.37	141
Valencia	Chema Martínez	M45	66.25	25
Vienna	Lemawork Ketema	M30	87.16	3
Zadar	Robert Radojkovic	M35	65.53	31

Female winners of the Wings for Life World Run 2017 ^[17]

Location	Winner	Age group	Distance (in km)	Global rank
Brasília	Leticia Da Silva Saltori	F25	44.93	39
Bratislava	Jo Meek	F35	54.38	13
Breda	Laura Chacon Biebach	F25	55.07	12
Cambridge	Nikolina Šustić	F25	55.14	10
Dubai	Emily Waugh	F18	43.01	52
Guadalajara	Frida Södermark	F35	47.62	29
Izmir	Meryem Gündoğdu	F30	39.43	93
Kakheti	Nino Miqadze	F18	29	484
Kalmar/Öland	Sophia Sundberg	F30	55.29	8
Kolomna	Alexandra Morozova	F25	57.59	6
Ljubljana	Eva Zorman	F18	40,11	84
Melbourne	Olesya Nurgalieva	F40	60.97	4
Milan	Cornelia Moser	F18	62.37	2
Munich	Bianca Meyer	F40	51.23	21
Olten	Diana Müller	F30	46.81	34
Poznan	Joasia Zakrzewski	F40	52.26	14
Pretoria	Landie Greyling	F30	37.44	121
Santa Clarita, CA	Nathalie Vasseur	F50	57.24	7
Santiago	Dominika Stelmach	F35	68.21	1
Stavanger	Therese Nordbø	F25	46.88	33
Sunrise, FL	Ana Villegas	F35	43.86	46
Tainan	Maibritt Daugaard	F30	42.5	58
Valencia	Betinha Pereira	F35	49.35	26
Vienna	Karin Freitag	F35	51.72	19
Zadar	Željka Šaban	F30	44.73	43

References

External links

• Official website of the foundation
• Official website of the competition