London Business Houses Bridges Relays - 21st
June
Thank you to everyone who turned up to take part in the in
London Business Houses Bridges relays on Thursday evening, especially our 3
fellow civil servants Danny Bailey (ARA) (HO), Rebecca Lambot (HMRC) and
Maureen Noel (DEFRA) whom answered Gemma Fabian's CSSC "call to arms"
at late notice to fill the vacant places to ensure that all the teams were able
to close their scoring.
Well, what a night we had at the bridges with our women's
"A" team finishing in 2nd place behind a very strong Metropolitan
Police women's "A" team and then our men's "A" team coming
home in 4th place out of 45 open teams but in silver position out of the 25 LBH
affiliated teams. It was certainly quite a night to get excited about and great
to see so many of the maroon and gold vests of the DTI on show carrying the
London Civil Service challenge against the city banks and institutions. The
team spirit was high with everyone supporting and cheering on each other they
headed off towards Vauxhall Bridge before returning to Westminster to hand over
to the next runner.
Race Highlights
As the minute hand of Big Ben neared 7 p.m., the tension
started to build as the first leg runners came into line. The back wall of St.
Thomas's hospital was lined with supporters waiting in anticipation for Big Ben
to strike. As silence fell, the peel of bells sounded and then there was a
deathly agonising silence for several seconds as the tension built still higher
before Big Ben finally struck 7 to release the suspense and the crowd erupted
with cries of support for the opening leg runners as they charged off towards
Vauxhall over the 2.3-mile course.
Diana Kennedy the CSAA 10k silver medallist, deputised for
Stephanie Robson on the opening leg who was forced to withdraw at late notice
with an injury. Diana
(pictured)
led the women's "A" team magnificently clocking 14.05 to hand
over to Jenny Thomas for the 2nd leg with the team in 3rd place. Jenny backed
Diana up with a run of 16.04 to put the team into 2nd place. Maureen Noel from
Defra then took over on the anchor running 16.50 to hold 2nd place and bring
the London Civil Service (DTI) home in silver position.
The men's "A" team consisted of 4 DTI runners.
Jerry Carnell the CSAA 10k M50 gold medallist ran a fine 1st leg in 13.39.
Crispin Allen the current DTI 1500m and 3000m gold medallist equalled Jerry's
time of 13.39 on the second leg. Milos Dusek held things together on the 3rd
leg with 14.31 before handing over to the 4DAs 2005 1500m gold medallist
Richard Hall. Richard ran a storming anchor leg with 13.17 to bring the
team home as LBH silver medallists. The team were placed 4th out of all the 45
open teams.
Explanation of our men's "A" team LBH silver
medal position: The winning open team from Barclays contained two
non-affiliated LBH team members which meant that particular Barclays team were
only registered for the open competition. The open silver medallists
Morgan Stanley chose not to renew their LBH affiliation this year which meant that
the London Civil Service (DTI) were placed 2nd out of the 25 LBH teams.
I hope that everyone whom took part whether in the
"A" teams or in the reserve teams enjoyed the challenge and the
experience of being part of a Civil Service (DTI) team. I will forward the
medals onto those concerned when I receive them form the
organisers.
The next LBH event is the 5-mile team and
individual road race which takes place in Victoria Park on the 26th July.
Start time 7.00 p.m.
John O'Shea
Team Manager
DTI Athletics Team
Tel: 020 7215 1285
mailto:john.o'shea@dti.gsi.gov.uk