On July 7 Beijing time, the "Red Bull 24-Hour Plateau Challenge," the highest-altitude multi-discipline mountain outdoor race in China, concluded at Jiaozi Mountain in Kunming. Due to a significant increase in difficulty this year, only 13 out of the 20 participating teams completed the race within 24 hours. The Red Bull Outdoor Team, made up of the "legendary couple" Urs Heinzler and his wife, along with Pajula and Batmunkh, claimed the championship with a time of 17 hours, 1 minute, and 11 seconds. The runner-up and third place were taken by the Kunming Hummingbird Team and the Yunnan Running Bar Team, respectively. After the race, Richard Ussher, who holds multiple international top-tier outdoor competition championships, described this event as "the most unique race in my personal outdoor sports career," and noted that its difficulty and intensity within 24 hours were on par with international elite competitions, including the Wulong International Outdoor Open, which they had won three times.
The Red Bull Outdoor Team running on Jiaozi Mountain
At 9:50 that evening, the Red Bull Outdoor Team was the first to arrive at the mandatory rest area at an altitude of 3,180 meters—Sifangjing on Jiaozi Mountain—under the cover of night, with the Kunming Hummingbird Team arriving second, 20 minutes behind. In less than six hours, the athletes completed a 61-kilometer run-bike course with an elevation gain of nearly 1,300 meters. As the highest-altitude mountain outdoor race in China, the "Red Bull 24-Hour Plateau Challenge" requires participants to climb from an altitude of 1,935 meters to 4,223 meters within 24 hours. This year’s new course retained the original vertical drop but featured increased length and difficulty as its main highlights, which many athletes praised. Ma Liangwu, captain of the third-place Yunnan Running Bar Team and known as the "Yunnan Outdoor Legend," affirmed: "The increased difficulty is the biggest highlight of this year’s event. This is my third time participating in the race. In the previous two editions, the moderate difficulty meant the gap between competitors wasn’t obvious. But this year is different. After completing the first day, we had already left our competitors far behind. The challenge is greater, and so is our motivation."