It was a bloodbath on the city’s financial district on the 25th October 2018. 166 teams battled out for the top spot in the sixth annual running of Bloomberg Square Mile Relay Singapore. Each team consisted of 10 members who were tasked with running the one-mile course in the fastest possible time before passing on the baton to the next colleague.
With 22% more teams on the starting line than previous years, Standard Chartered Bank managed to snag their first-place finish and was crowned the “fastest firm in the city”.
These are the top three results:
- 1st Place: Standard Chartered Bank with an impressive time of 53:50
- 2nd Place: Macquarie with just less than a minute short time of 54:35
- 3rd Place: Norges Bank Investment Management with an amazing time of 1:00:41
Standard Chartered Bank team captain, Mohammed Rahim said:
This is our sixth attempt at the relay, and it feels great to have finally won! This year, we had more training sessions and worked at maintaining our consistency throughout the race. The team performance exceeded our expectations and we are extremely proud of our achievement.
The highly competitive Fastest Mixed Team award was won by GIC with a stunning time of 1:01:58. Their team captain Sylvester Wee had this to say:
We are ecstatic about our securing our first win at the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay! It was a great team bonding experience, and to be part of an event that is supporting the community is even better. We have been training together with weekly runs and occasional time trials, so we are glad that our efforts have paid off! This is our fourth year participating in the relay, and we definitely hope to be back next year.
Bloomberg has a long history of supporting local communities and giving back, hence the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay in Singapore teamed up with sport-for-development charity SportCares to give back to the community as part of the global “The Extra Mile” initiative.
The Extra Mile initiative objective was to address unique social challenges in each city where the relay race takes place. Runners were encouraged to vote for one of the three causes that will have year-long support with a US$25,000 donation. Additionally, runners will have a chance to volunteer in activities that addresses the winning challenge.
Maggie Ng, Head of ASEAN Bloomberg, said:
Square Mile Relay offers a perfect opportunity for the city’s most competitive runners to come together for a night of camaraderie, teamwork, celebration and networking. At the same time, it gives us the chance to contribute to the overall wellness of the communities we operate in. We hope to see more teams next year, as more companies continue to instill healthy lifestyles within the workplace!
James Hassett, Managing Director of event organizer Square Mile Sport concludes the event by saying this:
Our global race series is like no other sporting event, as the city’s workers come together for a night of camaraderie, teamwork, celebration and networking, all whilst supporting a fantastic cause. We are excited to announce that two new cities are being added to the annual series next year, but we now look ahead to our final race of the global series which will be hosted in Hong Kong on 8th November
Headline sponsor Bloomberg returned for its sixth year of sponsorship in Singapore, joined by Virgin Active as fitness partner, Conrad Centennial Singapore as hotel accommodation partner, Grand Hyatt Singapore as catering supplier and Peroni as beer supplier.
Update, 31 October 2018: Following the race, it became evident that the winning team as announced at the event (Standard Chartered 4) inadvertently did not reach the team eligibility criteria of having a minimum of 8 individual participants employed by their company in their team.
As such, Standard Chartered 4 have been removed from the results. All other teams have moved up one place which means that the official winner of the race is Macquarie 1. Macquarie wish to give back to the community so the Macquarie Group Foundation will also be donating US$25,000 to SportCares Foundation, matching the US$25,000 already donated by Bloomberg Square Mile Relay in support of The Extra Mile programme.
The revised top 3 teams are as follows:
- Macquarie 1
- Norges Bank Investment Management 1
- GIC Pte Ltd 1
