300 runners joined this year’s edition of the UBB Vertical Run, held on 12 November 2025 at the UBB Millennium Center building. This is a record in terms of the number of participants in the extreme race, which is being held for a fifth time at Sofia’s banking hub.

Within just 10 hours the quota of 150 contestants in the Open category has been depleted, which is an interest comparable to that in concerts of popular performers. By tradition participants were split into three categories – Relay-race, Team Blue, for employees of the Bank and Open for freely enrolled contestants. Runners had to overcome 1012 steps and nearly 200 metres total vertical drop, while climbing up and going down the stairs of the 24th floor Head Office building of the biggest bank in Bulgaria in terms of assets.

„Today we are in UBB Millennium Center – the place where elevators will be having a rest, while we will be doing the whole work, by successfully climbing up and going down the building’s staircase. UBB Vertical Run is not just a pleasant sporting contest, but a symbol of our belief that true success is being achieved step by step, and in this case – indeed !“, shared Christof De Mil, Country Manager of KBC Group in Bulgaria and Chief Executive Officer. He also set a personal example to the participants by leading one of the relays up the staircase.

The first place in the Relay Race ranking was won by the team of Last Year’s Champions, who defended their title with time of 4:26.5 minutes, followed by the Bonus team and by the Verticool Runners. In the Team Blue – Women category the winner was Anna Veleva with 5:32.4 minutes, thus beating Zlatina Kostadinova and Lilyana Banovska, while in the Men category Yanko Yankov triumphed once again with a result of 4:41.9 minutes, thus improving by 20 seconds his previous result, followed by Nikolay Dermendzhiev and Valentin Metodiev. In the Open -Women category the first to cross the finish line was Maria Nikolova, who also defended her title with the impressive time of 4:49.6 minutes, beating Julia Albergi and Vesselka Ivanova-Kostova. In the Men category Aleksandar Pedev was the fastest runner and recorded the best time in this year’s edition of the marathon being 4:22.3 minutes, followed by Pavlin Beev and Yosif Bankov, ranking second and third respectively.

All participants received medals, and winners – vouchers for sports commodities and presents from „KakSi“ – the health app of DZI. A special award for inspiration was given out to Viktor Asenov, the only blind mountain runner in Bulgaria, who joined the race for a third consecutive year.

UBB Vertical Run ranks next to world famous vertical marathons, such as those of the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building and gathers an ever-growing interest among extreme running lovers in Bulgaria. This is the only contest of its kind in a building of KBC Group in Europe and is part of the Group’s commitment to promoting active and healthy way of living.