ENARADA, Bangalore, August 4, 2013:
The largest corporate relay of its kind in the country – PUMA Urban Stampede 2013, Bangalore witnessed some exhilarating competition as 500 teams competed against each other to be crowned the ‘fastest corporate’. The event, which was organised by Runners for Life and sponsored by PUMA, was held at Hotel Clarks Exotica, Devanahalli.
The team from Goldman Sachs comprising of Alifiya Mamaji, Linette Radhika, Aditi Mathew and Laura May finished first in the Women’s category with a total time of 1:53:38, while in the Men’s category Pradeepa SM, Ashwith, Uday Kumar and Shivaswamy AS representing Toyota Kirloskar finished on top with a time of 1:14:27. In the Mixed category, the team from Goldman Sachs, led by their Managing Director – Vaishali Kasture along with Jon May, Jeremy Follett and Jagmohan Bisht took home the top honours with a total time of 1:27:01.
Laura May from Goldman Sachs and Ashwith from Toyota Kirloskar got the award for the fastest male and fastest female respectively. The ‘Pulse of the Stampede’ award for fielding maximum number of teams was won by InMobi which fielded 30 teams.
In its sixth consecutive year, the idea behind PUMA Urban Stampede is to use the sport of running as a means to address health and fitness issues that have arisen due to the sedentary lifestyle and stressful work environment of modern-day employees. The format of the event is very simple, 4 member teams from one organisation have to run 5 kilometres each to complete a 20 kilometre run with prizes given to the fastest teams in three categories – Women, Men and Mixed (at least one member of the other gender).
As part of the event, a series of other activities were carried out in the weeks preceding the main run. This included The Race Aces Programme – a specially designed training module for amateur runners, which was conducted at multiple corporate campuses. Another unique initiative was the Battle of the Boardrooms which was held on July 27. The event had over 40 senior executives from top companies of the city who participated in a two-member relay race to spread the message of health and fitness. This was followed by a talk by renowned sports scientist from South Africa Shayamal Vallabhjee on August 3 who met runners at an interactive session to share his experiences and give them useful tips on running.
Speaking about the run, Rajiv Mehta – Managing Director, PUMA India said “Running is one of the most effective and accessible ways to achieve fitness and PUMA Urban Stampede does exactly that – takes running to a wider audience. The response we have seen today is proof of what events like this can do to achieve that goal. In Runners for Life, we have found a perfect partner and we’re certain that this partnership will only strengthen in the time to come.”
“This edition of the PUMA Urban Stampede has by far been the most exciting. The response, both in number of teams participating as well as the quality of running has been outstanding, from 350 teams last year, we had over 500 teams this year. This only goes to show how running has picked up among citizens of this city. This only encourages us, and coupled with the tremendous support we have received from PUMA and all our partners, we promise to come back bigger and better next year” said, Arvind Bharathi – Head, Runners for Life.
The Puma Urban Stampede was conceptualised and launched by Runners for Life in Bangalore in 2008 with an aim to promote running as a means to achieve fitness, especially among the corporate folk. Since then, the event has spread to other metros of the country including Mumbai and Hyderabad with plans for other cities in the pipeline.
