On May the 7th 2017 at precisely 9pm (Eastern Standard Time), the Red Bull ‘Wings for Life World Run’ kicked off in 58 countries across all corners of the globe. The starters gun echoed around the world at exactly the same time as the 155,288 participants raced to gain as much distance as possible on the catcher cars that would chase them down. Competitors ran and wheel-chaired away from the pursuing vehicles in varying conditions, whether it was by day (Brazil) or by night (Australia), they battled high heat and humidity in Taiwan, and even freezing hailstorms in Slovenia.
In Melbourne, four whole lanes of the Monash Highway were closed as 3,500 participants ran off into the Melbourne night aiming to stay ahead of the mobile finish line for as long as possible. Female winner Olesya Nurgalieva ran 60.9 km before she was chased down by the catcher car while male winner Teddy Bezancon managed to put 70.2 km’s between himself and the finish car. The overall worldwide winner was wheelchair competitor Aron Anderson of Sweden who rode 92.14 km’s in his regular wheelchair before eventually being caught in the Dubai leg of the race.
The competitors pushed and challenged themselves to the max, resulting in a total of $7.8 Million dollars (US) being raised for the Wings for Life Foundation, a charity supporting research for a cure and rehabilitation of spinal cord injury.
Our Role
3vent Director, Kevin Forrester, was on hand for the Melbourne event in the role of Course Manager. Kevin brought his exceptional events knowledge and experience in logistics and operations to the table ensuring that the organisation and delivery of this complex event was a complete success, in particular, the real-time co-ordination of the simultaneous start with the other 57 events running around the world.