SPAIN'S world-famous 'Recordman' has surpassed even his own expectations – not content with having more entries in the Guinness Book of Records than anyone else in the country, Dr Christian López has just won a race to the top of the nation's fourth-tallest building.
Since we introduced Christian to our readers in November 2020 to help him celebrate his 40th world record, he has upped his total by nearly 75% in those 18 months, now hitting 67.
Dr Christian López with his well-deserved trophy for the fastest run up 1,320 steps (this photo and the next from @tribunadetoledo on Twitter)
The sports instructor and motivational speaker from Cabañas de Sagra (Toledo province), now 34, only needs to smash one more record, and he'll have two for every year of his life.
This time, though, he was not even trying to pocket another entry – Christian's sprint up 1,320 stairs in under eight minutes was merely a training exercise for further record-breaking.
Madrid's Torre Emperador, at 230 metres (754 feet) tall and with 56 floors – completed in 2007 and joined by three more tower blocks the following year in the complex now known as Las Cuatro Torres – was briefly Spain's highest building until the PwC Tower (236 metres), the CEPSA Tower (248 metres) and the Torre de Cristal or 'Glass Tower' (249 metres) knocked it off its throne one by one.
At the moment, the Torre de Cristal is Spain's highest building, although the country's highest structure is a 60-year-old radio-transmitter mast in Guardamar del Segura, southern Alicante province.
Christian himself described the Emperador Tower race as 'daunting', or at least, 'worthy of respect' – more so than one of Spain's best-known skyscraper marathons, up the 186-metre, 54-floor Gran Hotel Bali in Benidorm, which is a 'mere' 924 stairs.
In fact, the Gran Hotel Bali race was the first major fitness test Christian put himself to as a very young man, coming 18th out of over 100 competitors.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com