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Text from http://www.jpmorganchasecc.com/. Last Checked 20th October 2006
NEW YORK, October 7, 2006 – With flags of six participating countries adorning a traffic-free Park Avenue on a cool autumn day in New York, Barbara Paddock, Senior Vice President in Global Philanthropy/Strategic Initiatives for JPMorgan Chase, addressed the runners gathered in front of her company's headquarters for the 24 th running of the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship.
“This is,” she said, “the working man's Olympics.”
Indeed, the Championship not only brings together runners whose teams have won titles from cities on five continents in the far-flung Series, but it also serves as a vivid reminder of how talented the runners are – despite pursuing demanding careers.
Evidence of that considerable running talent began pouring across the finish line of the 3.5-mile Championship a scant 16 minutes, 31 seconds later when Angus MacLean of Great Britain 's Hampshire & Dorset Health Care team sprinted across the finish line to capture the individual male title over a trio of runners from South African powerhouse Transwerk.
“I have qualified as a doctor,” said MacLean. “I often run from my home to work as a way to find time to train.”
MacLean's demanding career, coupled with his undeniable talent, brings a quick flashback to another British runner whose medical career blossomed at the same time his running skills reached a peak. In his relentless drive to become the first human to break the 4-minute barrier in the mile, Dr. Roger Bannister also had to balance the demands of medicine and athletics. No one is suggesting that MacLean is another Bannister, although MacLean is the British Under-23 1,500 meter champion with a 3:39 best in the metric mile. But, Bannister could relate to, and probably revel in, MacLean's run on Park Avenue today. And, Bannister would no doubt strongly identify with the spirit of the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge, which celebrated the close of its 30th year of promoting fitness in the workplace by having more than 220,000 employees take part worldwide.
Today was the day when the “best of the best” in the 12-city Series demonstrated their talent on the great stage that is Park Avenue.
Just behind MacLean came Emmanuel Mkhabela (16:36), Thabang Mohale (16:38), and Johannes Ndala (16:49) of Transwerk. After MacLean's teammate Andy Hennessy interrupted the Transwerk string with a fifth-place finish, Frank Lekhwi completed Transwerk's run to another Male Team Title with a sixth-place effort in 16:59, meaning all four of Transwerk's runners bettered 17 minutes.
And yet...
“We were disappointed,” said Ndala. “We came not only to defend our title, but to set a record. Every year a new record. We also wanted to finish 1-2-3-4, but the British runners were very tough.”
For the record, the four sub-17-minute times added up to a 1:07:02 aggregate for Transwerk, well ahead of the 1:09:36 of second-place Hampshire & Dorset Health Care and 1:12:26 of third-place Google of San Francisco.
Part of the GE presence: Three top-10 team finishes in 24th straight year at Championship.
“We were a little disappointed at not winning the team title,” said MacLean, who tucked in behind the top three Transwerk runners much of the race, then used his miler's speed to win easily in the final 100 yards. “But, we're not too disappointed. Transwerk's runners were very, very strong and they were clearly the better team. We'd like to come back next year, however, to challenge them.”
No accounting of excellence on this day could be complete without a reference to the most-dominating team in the history of the Championship – Royal Mail Letters of London. For the 14th consecutive JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship, they won at least one title, a record that is unmatched. Royal Mail actually had two champions today. Claire Martin successfully defended her individual Female title, and Royal Mail also added the Mixed Team title, an honor that had gone the last five years to Roche Diagnostics of Frankfurt.
Although saying the effort was harder for her than in past years, Martin was dominant. After being challenged through an opening 5:18 first mile by GlaxoSmithKline's Christa Downey, Martin took over to run solo to a 19:14 victory. Caitlin Tormey of Christie's Inc., came on for second place in 19:29, with Downey also breaking 20 minutes in third at 19:47.
“I thought I'd do well because I ran a personal best a couple of weeks ago and I'm in good form,” Martin said. “But even though I felt good, this was hard. It seems to get harder every year. We were a little surprised the team competition wasn't closer, but obviously we're happy to win.”
With a time of 1:16:45, Royal Mail won by more than three minutes over runner-up Allens Arthur Robinson of Sydney. But Martin said she expected the main competition to come from Roche. However, two of Roche's top runners were missing (Katja Potthof with an Achilles tendon injury and Dr. Matthias Corner, who was competing in a marathon) and another runner was ill, but ran. Whether Roche and Royal Mail have a rematch at full strength next year – Royal Mail also was missing its top male runner in injured Chris Davies – is questionable, however.
“We want to come back and win the Women's team title again, after having won it so many years (seven in a row),” said Martin. She said Beverly Jenkins, a multi-time winner on Park Avenue for Royal Mail, is having a baby in January and couldn't run this year. But, said Martin, she and injured teammate Shirley Griffith are both looking ahead to next year.
That could point to a challenge for GlaxoSmithKline, which successfully defended the Female team title it won last year by ending Royal Mail's seven-year reign. Once again, the team of Downey, Jessica Webb, Susan Copleman, and Shirley Geerling came out on top, this time running 1:23:52 to edge Frankfurt 's Polizei Hessen by just over a minute. Keying the victory was Downey.
“That first mile in 5:18, when I was with Claire, was a little quick and I paid for it at the end of race,” said Downey, “but this is all about the team, not an individual race. I wanted to get out quickly to finish as fast as I could to help the team. I was running hard to give everything for the team effort and for us to rebound and win the team title again,... well, we're just very, very happy.”
Among the other items worth noting about the day's results was that General Electric celebrated its participation in all 24 of the Championships, by finishing fourth (Boston team) and third (Chicago team) in the Female Division, and fifth in the Male Division.
That's the kind of record Roger Bannister would have appreciated
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