Participants of Wings for Life World Run collect EUR 3 million for charity
Five and a half hours of camaraderie and competition shared across every continent produced unforgettable moments of elation and emotion until Swedish wheelchair athlete Aron Anderson and Portuguese runner Vera Nunes were crowned Global Champions. In Azerbaijan the winners are Anna Yusupova and Suleyman Aliyev.
The run's simultaneous start - night or day, sun or rain - spanned every corner of the earth, from Australia to Colombia, with run starting in Baku, Azerbaijan at 3pm. Running in Sunrise, USA, Swedish wheelchair athlete Aron Anderson earned his second consecutive Global Championship by outpacing the Catcher Car to 89.85 km in an everyday wheelchair, while in Munich, Germany, Portugal's Vera Nunes ran hard to capture the women's crown with a distance of 53.78 km, a margin of just 50 meters over Croatia's Nikolina Šustić.
Azerbaijani winners are Anna Yusupova, who run 28.35 km before she was caught by virtual catcher car and Suleyman Aliyev, who run 25 km.
"I am overloaded with emotions! Great result, proud of myself, as not only I won the Baku run, but I broke my personal best result, which was 21km until today. Participating in charity runs is very inspiring as you not just challenge your body and mind to win but to win for a good cause - to raise awareness and make a change" - said Anna, after she completed the race.
100 per cent of entry fees and donations raised in the Wings for Life World Run - over 3,000,000 euros in the 2018 edition alone, with more still coming in - goes to leading-edge research funded by the nonprofit Wings for Life foundation.
The date for the sixth edition of the Wings for Life World Run is May 5, 2019.