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This is the 6th Soochow 24h race. Almost every year, we experienced the power of nature. On the midnight of March 4th-5th, the temperature dropped to 3.5 degree Celsius, the record low of March in Taiwan for past 50 year. There were10 locations snowed island wide. It is not common at all in this sub-tropical island.
Mr. Dirk Strumane, the President of IAU, announced the 2006 IAU 24h world challenge will be held in Taiwan at the opening ceremony of Soochow race. He inspected the race route, surrounding environments and athlete village on March 4th and met with a Deputy Mayor of Taipei city. On the opening ceremony of Soochow race, he sat next to another deputy Mayor of Taipei and concluded that all the Deputy Mayors of Taipei are devoted runners. As a matter of, there two Deputy Mayors, and yes, they are all runners. May be this is one of the reasons why they were picked by Mr. Ma, the Taipei Mayor and a famous runner in Taiwan. Definitely, ultrarunners will run with Mr. Ma and two Deputy Mayors in the world challenge next year.
Mr. Otaki, 2004 Soochow race winner, current Asia record holder and best 24 h performer of 2004, took a very steady pace for 19 hours and then he faced serious problem. As a physical doctor himself, he decided to drop out. The formal Asia record holder and 2004 world champion, Mr. Sekiya, started at the easy pace, 10.5K per hour, and then moved on, beat the low temperature and stands on winners’ stage again.
Local female runner, Mrs. Chiou, established new national record at her first trial of 24h race. Her 195K result placed 4th in the women category. However, she wins the title of “Queen of Taiwan ultrarunning” with no question. She owns three national records, 100K, 12h and 24h.
Mrs. Fujita, the winner of woman category, almost establishes new Asia record in the race. We are confident that she will make new record soon. Helga Backhaus, from Germany, run with her Colani-leg, demonstrated the spirit of ultrarunning and won the respect from all the spectators.
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