London Rises to the Challenge But Comes Up Short in 10K Run

London Rises to the Challenge But Comes Up Short in 10K Run

LONDON, June 3/PRNewswire/ -- TV personality and keen fitness follower Denise Van Outen today led 2200 of London's finest runners to a brave performance in the inaugural Norwich Union City V City 10K. Leading the rallying cry, Denise made a valiant attempt to set the pace but despite their sterling efforts, London's runners narrowly lost out to Glasgow, the eventual winners of the event. Olympic silver medallist Liz McColgan took first place in the women's race, giving Scots another reason to celebrate over their English rivals.

The Norwich Union City v City 10K run, which took place on Sunday 3rd June, was a groundbreaking new event which saw fun runners and seasoned professionals alike fly the flag for their home city, as London went head to head with Liverpool, and Glasgow, in the UK's first 10k relay.

With the Olympic Games being held in London in five years time, London's performance today demonstrated that the future of British athletics is in good shape with several fine individual performances contributing to an overall time of 54:51. Glasgow narrowly won with a time of 54:21 and Liverpool took second place with 54:38. Over 3,500 competitors took part across three cities and although Glasgow was by no means the favourite going into the race, the overall margin of victory was so slight that each of the three cities can be proud of their performance.

A reflective Denise commented after the race, "Despite the result I am really pleased that we got so many people involved, it's great for the city to try and get one over on the other two and even though we didn't win we can all be proud of our efforts and start thinking about how we can win the trophy next year."

Simon Machell, Chief Executive of Norwich Union Insurance, commented on the success of the event and London's valiant efforts: "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 people out of their armchairs and leading by example. It was great to see so many people taking up the challenge and congratulations to London for their efforts. We hope to see even more people participating next year."

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 0870-998-6800

Source: Norwich Union

For media enquiries, please contact the following: Glasgow: Gerri Carr (Norwich Union/H&K), +44(0)777-613-311; Liverpool: Ben Goldhagen (Norwich Union/H&K), +44(0)784-102-7002; London: Lucy Windsor (Norwich Union/H&K), +44(0)7792-721859

---

Profile: International Entertainment