Ángel López Amor, the ‘super athlete’ who climbs 4,712 steps in 30 minutes

He has been proclaimed champion of Spain in vertical races after climbing the Monserrat massif and three of the tallest buildings in Spain

His goal for 2024 is to climb the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Empire State Building in New York

Got it! The Altean athlete Angel Lopez Love has been proclaimed absolute champion “Open Men” of the National Vertical Racing Circuit, and champion in its category of under 30 years oldafter finishing in second position in the last competition held in the climb to the Torre Garena building, in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), almost a month ahead of schedule at the beginning of the season when it was announced that it would be on November 4.

López has competed in four of the five events that made up the national championship that began on April 22 with the climb to Gran Hotel Bali in Benidorm. In this building he climbed its 52 floors and 924 steps, with a gradient of 190 meters, in a time of 4:55 minutes, which earned him sixth place overall out of the 455 runners and specialists from around the world who participated, being the first Spanish athlete classified in this test.

Three weeks later, on May 13, he competed in the climb to the Torre Emperador located on Paseo de la Castellana, in Madrid, finishing second in the general classification and first in the senior category among 700 athletes by investing 7:03 minutes to climb the 55 floors with a slope of 224 meters and 1,320 steps of the fourth tallest building in Spain, only surpassed in the ranking by the Torre de Cristal, the Torre Cepsa and the Torre PwC, a quartet of buildings that form the most emblematic group of skyscrapers on the Madrid skyline.

The runner from Altea did not rest for long since a week later he competed in the toughest test on the circuit: the Vertical of the Monserrat Massif. Here he had to climb 2,180 steps in one kilometer in length with a slope of 388 meters and a slope of 60 percent of the service stairs that separate the lower station of the Santa Cueva de Montserrat Funicular from the upper station of the Sant Joan Funicular of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat of Catalonia (FGC). In the test he was classified in second position with a time of 12:37 minutes.

In June there were two more tests. The climb to Marbella Mediterranean Building on June 3, in which Ángel López did not participate because he did not qualify for the final, and the climb of the 28 floors and 547 steps of the Torre Laguna in El Ejido (Almería) on the 17th, which was suspended a few days before. With which, the rise of the building remained Torre Garena, from Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). In this test, held on the 7th, the Altean athlete was already leading the National Vertical Racing Championship with a score that made him the winner of the circuit even if he finished in third position.

Unlike the other vertical climbs, the one in Alcalá de Henares was mixed mode. In this sense, the runners had to run on the asphalt 900 metros taking a walk around the block Torre Garena (the tallest in the city) before heading through the main door to the top of the 71.75 meter high skyscraper with 16 floors and 288 steps with a time of 4 minutes and 27 seconds that earned him second place in the overall and first in its category.

177 floors and 4,712 steps climbed in half an hour

Ángel Lopez Love, from 28 years of age, belongs to the Altea Athletics Club and began competing in this modality at the age of 17 in the climb to the Bali hotel. With a height of 178 centimeters and a weight of 55 kilos, your heart pumps at rest at 33 beats per minuteand in the race it reaches 195 heartbeats once it has reached the top of the buildings.

In this national championship he has climbed a total of 177 floors and 4,712 steps in the 874 meters high that the buildings and the vertical of Monserrat would have if they were placed on top of each other, investing 29 minutes and 2 seconds to do so.

He Spain champion of this athletic modality he has explained that in all the races he has competed “I climb the steps two at a time, because from one to one the pulse increases a lot, and from three to three there is a lot of muscle load.” On tactic employee states that “I use the handrails when I need it and it always depends on whether the test is long or short. I like the short ones better where you have to go at a medium-high pace so that when you face the last 10 floors, can be reached with a point of force and pressing from less to more. very agonizing testsbecause you reach the limits above when your legs can’t take another step,” he asserts.

The youngest athlete in Spain in the vertical climb modality

Angel Lopez He is a baker by profession and trains at the Bali hotel and other skyscrapers in the Marina Baixa region, in addition to climbing the crest of the Bernia mountain range from Altea la Vella, or running through the steep and stepped Altea slopes from the beach to the top of the old town. He is currently the youngest athlete in Spain competing in the vertical running specialty.

He says that since childhood “I have always participated in popular races. I am good at climbing buildings because without realizing it I have had training since I was a child, since I live on the third floor and I never took the elevator because I liked more to run up to see if I could beat him”, and explains that before running “I competed on a mountain bike with my brother”.

It was after his first climb to the Bali Hotel in 2012, after competing in the vertical kilometer, that the bug hit him and the Benidorm athlete Antonio Trives He began to be his coach. With him he remains under his orders, and is already preparing for the 2024 competitions where he has proposed participate in the European circuitgo up to the Torre Eiffel from Paris and if it comes to it, Empire State Building from New York. Although for this you need more financing and sponsors that he has already started looking for.