My name is Soh Wai Ching. I am a professional athlete, specialize in towerrunning / stair climbing sport. I am the youngest in the family. I started playing Chinese Chess since the age of 6 and I loved it so much. In my secondary school time, I started long distance running by joining my secondary school (SMK Ideal Heights) cross country at the age of 13 (Form 1). I did it once a year and eventually I followed my sister to take part in road running competitions in Kuala Lumpur.

I enjoyed playing Chess still but right after secondary school, at the age of 18 (year 2012), I ventured into long distance running. I then decided to pursue Bachelor’s Degree of Sports Science (Major in Exercise Science) in University of Malaya (UM) after my high school due to the interest in long distance running sport. Eventually, I got accepted into UM and I am so grateful on being able to apply what I am going to learn into the sport. 

I actively took part in long distance running event almost on a weekly basis from distance of 5km up to 25km and at the same time I was chosen to represent my university of University Games: SUKMUM (UM Inter College Games), MASUM (Inter Local University Games), SUKIPT (Institution of Higher Learning Games), SIPMA (Inter Malaysian Educational Institution Sport Games), BIG (Biennial Intervarsity Games), and AUG (ASEAN University Games). Sir Mo Farah (Great Britain) is my idol that I look up to and I always wanted to be like him, winning the Double Gold for both 5000m and 10000m. Eventually I did it in my final year in MASUM 2018 whereby I won Double Gold in both 5000m and 10000m events. 

During my undergraduate time, I qualified to represent Malaysia twice in AUG 2016 Singapore and AUG 2018 Myanmar by becoming the fastest runner for 10000m in 2016 and second fastest runner for both 5000m and 10000m in 2018. My goals at that time were to represent Malaysia for both 5000m and 10000m and I successfully achieved it by qualified to AUG. I also aim to challenge the National Record of Malaysia for both 5000m – 14:06.84 min (5th Aug 1994) and 10000m – 29:30.19 min (27th Aug 1994), both own by Ramachandran Murusamy. 

I then ventured into towerrunning sport at the age of 23 (year 2017) because of my friend, Jeffrey Ross challenged me to take part in KL Tower International Towerthon Challenge (KLTITC) 2017. I then accepted his challenge and I wanted to apply what I have learned from my degree into this sport. By analyzing the specific needs of the sport, I then designed a training program for myself and execute it by climbing up repetitively at a 20 floors condominium nearby my house. 

A day before the KL Tower International Towerthon Challenge 2017, I found out that there are many towerrunning competitions around the world and there is a World Ranking for that (www.towerrunning.com). I told myself that I will start to travel oversea and challenge the world class towerrunners after I win the competition on the next day. After a month of training for towerrunning sport, on 14th May 2017, I emerged as the Best Malaysian in KL Tower International Towerthon Challenge. Therefore, I decided to travel and compete with the best in the world to explore my potential in this sport. 

My aim was to achieve World No. 1 within 3 years time but due the pandemic strike in Mar 2020, the World Ranking froze. Once it’s back in Apr 2022, I immediately climbed to the World No. 1 Ranking. At least, I still achieve it even though it took me almost five years’ time. I am now holding the World No. 1 title ever since. My purpose in life is to actively involve in towerrunning sport, to maintain the World No. 1 title for 10 Years (until Mar 2032) and to attempt for the course records of all the competitions that I am going to take part.