Wings for Life World Run

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. 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.

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.

The Motto of the race is:

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This year 72224 women and men, among them again numerous internationally knwon 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).

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.

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.

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.

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.