London's Deutsche Bank team starting
Olympic year with trip to Championship

2012 London Championship qualifiers
2011 Teams	Qualifiers
Male: DEUTSCHE BANK	David Lock, Lee McMeekin, Anthony Murrell, Alex Wilson
Female: DELOITTE	Laura Asplin, Luisa Brana, Stephanie Mitchell, Heather Trotman
Mixed: DELOITTE	Hannah Bowe, Amy Dale, Tyler O’Callaghan, Maarten van der Hoeven

LONDON, February 7, 2012 — With the Olympics only months away, it is an exciting time to be a Londoner. And that’s particularly true for the members of the Deutsche Bank Men’s team, who will get an early jump on the Olympic year when they compete in their first ever J.P. Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship in Chicago in May.

The Deutsche Bank team will join London’s Female and Mixed team champions from Deloitte at the 29th annual Series Championship, an elite international gathering that brings together the best 39 corporate teams from across the world’s leading corporate running series. The Male, Female and Mixed team champions from each city will square off in a 3.5-mile Championship that will be run just prior to the start of the regularly scheduled JPMorgan Chase & Co. Corporate Challenge on May 24 at Grant Park.

With his city hosting the 2012 Summer Games in July and August, Deutsche Bank runner Alex Wilson appreciates that this is a special time to have qualified for an international event, such as the Corporate Challenge Championship.

“It really is an honour to be able to represent our capital in 2012,” said Wilson. “With the Olympics less than 200 days away there is already huge excitement and anticipation in the city; poster campaigns supporting our athletes, unprecedented demand for practice events and qualification races; and press coverage already taking up the back pages of newspapers. We really hope that this will inspire the strongest demand for entrants in this year’s London race ever.”

Members of the 2011 Deutsche Bank team stretch prior to last year's race. In addition to qualifying its Men's team for the Series Championship, Deutsche Bank increased its participation from 597 in 2010 to 778 last year.

The focus on widespread participation may sound unusual for a runner who has managed to qualify for an elite event, but it is a core belief that runs throughout Deutsche Bank’s commitment to the Corporate Challenge. Wilson and many others at Deutsche Bank clearly have embraced the Corporate Challenge’s mission of improving health and fitness in the workplace. The evidence is clear, whether it is in the Corporate Challenge race in Frankfurt — where Deutsche Bank had a team of 1,212 in 2011 — New York — where Deutsche Bank has 352 participants — or London.

Last year, Deutsche Bank saw its team roster at London grow considerably, rising from 597 in 2010 to 778, making it one of the largest teams in the two nights of racing at Battersea Park.

“The bank has always had incredibly positive support for various charitable causes and prides itself in such a high level of employee engagement,” he said. “Long may it continue!”

“Deutsche Bank’s primary focus in the Corporate Challenge has always been widening participation across the various business divisions and while we clearly have a many strong runners in the event we are equally, if not more pleased, with the consistently high numbers of entrants we have year on year,” he added.

Not that he is about to discount the honour of qualifying for the Championship.

“Clearly we were very pleased and excited with our qualification and we hope that with a little more focused training there is still significant room for improvement on championship day,” he said. “We have a very diverse team from different areas of the bank — Sales, Trading, Research and Finance — but despite this we have already started to train together in readiness for the Championship race ahead.”

Wilson was part of a team that qualified for the 2012 Series Championship in London by putting together four consistently good times in the race through Battersea Park on July 6.

Sarah Horsley of Deutsche Bank gets ready to run in 2011 under beautiful conditions at Battersea Park. With its Men's team going to the Series Championship in May in Chicago, its full team competing in the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge in London scheduled for July 11-12, and the world coming to their city for the Summer Olympic Games beginning in late July, it will be an exciting year for Deutsche Bank in London.

Anthony Murrell led the way for Deutsche Bank by finishing fifth overall in 18:17. A “keen” club athlete who enjoys competitive running, Murrell races anything from 5km events through to the marathon.

Wilson was the next finisher for Deutsche Bank in London in 18:36. He started training seriously two years ago and has concentrated on the marathon, with the Virgin London Marathon his next race coming up in April. But, he has also recently recorded a 5km personal best and is hoping to improve on his 18:36 time  in Chicago.

Lee McMeekin was the third finisher for Deutsche Bank in 19:11. McMeekin has run in London’s Corporate Challenge for more than a decade for Maidstone and Medway, before joining Deutsche Bank.

David Lock rounded out Deutsche Bank’s Championship qualifying team with a 19:45 finish. Lock works in the equity research division of the bank and is in training for both the London and New York marathons this year, having run London two years ago. He is looking forward to the Chicago championship in what will be his first overseas race, and hopes that his current marathon training will improve on his previous JPMCC times.

They will be joined in Chicago by two teams from Deloitte, which repeated its achievements of 2010 in qualifying both its Female and Mixed teams for the Series Championship. Like Deutsche Bank, Deloitte, a global accounting and consulting firm, was well represented at London last summer with 1,000 entrants wearing its understated white team t-shirt that had a direct message on the back — “Best Foot Forward.”

Deloitte’s Mixed team of Hannah Bowe, Amy Dale, Tyler O’Callaghan, and Maarten van der Hoeven will come into the Championship in Chicago as the sixth fastest squad in its category after authoring a combined time of 1:23:37, which won in London by nearly two minutes.

Deloitte’s Female team of Laura Asplin, Luisa Brana, Stephanie Mitchell, Heather Trotman was good enough to withstand the departure of former teammate Stacey Ward, who won the women’s individual race for the Capita Group in 19:50. Their combined time of 1:35:10 edged Goldman Sachs by eight seconds and earned the team another trip back to the Championship in what promises to be a memorable year for London athletics.