Glasgow Cruise to Landmark Victory in Norwich Union City v City 10K Challenge

Glasgow Cruise to Landmark Victory in Norwich Union City v City 10K Challenge

GLASGOW, Scotland, June 3/PRNewswire/ -- TV personality Gail Porter today led almost 1000 of Glasgow's fun runners to victory in the inaugural Norwich Union City v City 10k Run. Leading the charge against Ricky Tomlinson in Liverpool and Denise Van Outen in London, as team captain, Gail was cheering on the runners from the start and encouraging them along the way. Olympic silver medallist Liz McColgan took first place in the women's race, giving Scots another reason to celebrate over their English rivals.

With the Olympic Games being held in London in five years time, Glasgow's victory today demonstrated that the future of British athletics is in good shape with several fine individual performances contributing to an overall winning time of 54:21. Over 3,500 competitors took part across three cities and although Glasgow were underdogs going into the race, with a winning time of 54:21 compared to those of 54:38 for Liverpool and 54:51 for London, the city led from the start.

A jubilant Gail commented after the race, 'I'm chuffed to bits that we managed to win today, it's great for the city to get one over on the other two and means we can all be proud of our efforts and start to think about how we can retain the title next year.'

Simon Machell, Chief Executive of Norwich Union commented on the success of the event and Glasgow's victory: "As the team behind UK Athletics, we aim to inspire the nation to join us in supporting and participating in the sport. Norwich Union is committed to making it easier for 10 million children to get active by 2012 and our City v City 10K has been a great way of getting Glaswegians leading by example. It is great to see so many people taking up the challenge and we hope that next year's event is even bigger and better. Congratulations to Glasgow and to all those that took part today."

GBP5 from each race entry fee in today's run has gone towards a new Norwich Union fund which will be used to support over 200 sports initiatives across the UK in the next year. The public is invited to support sport in their local community by visiting http://www.norwichunion.com/joinourteam and voting for their favourite local initiative which could have a chance of winning up to GBP50,000 in valuable funding.

Photography available from Getty publicity at http://www.gettyimages.com

Norwich Union & UK Athletics

Norwich Union has been the number one sponsor of UK Athletics since 1999 with a significant amount of money invested in developing the sport at grassroots level. This support is making it easier for every child in the UK to have the opportunity to have access to athletics by 2012, and provide extensive support to teachers to deliver the sport in schools. By 2012 it is anticipated that over 10 million children will have been actively engaged in Norwich Union-funded athletics schemes.

As the team behind UK Athletics, Norwich Union's support at every level will add value to the existing World Class Pathway investment in elite athletes, provide more opportunities to help identify future champions, and also help prepare children for life challenges through increased sporting participation.

For more information on how to get involved in UK Athletics and Norwich Union initiatives, visit http://www.norwichunion.com/joinourteam or call UK Athletics on +44(0)870-998-6800.

Source: Norwich Union

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