CERN Relay Race: a great success!
Thursday 1st June marked the traditional Relay Race at CERN, organised jointly by the Running Club and the CERN Staff Association.
Once again, the Race lived up to the expectations and the number of participants came close to last year’s all-time high with no less than 715 entries across different categories! In total 116 teams of 6 runners and 19 walkers completed the course at the Meyrin site in bright sunshine. Congratulations to all of them!
Our Director-General gave the starting signal for the Race, demonstrating the interest in this event at the highest level of the Organization. Thank you for this much appreciated commitment!
Moreover, a number of very high-level runners came to spice up this 2017 edition. The 1000-meter race was a tight one between Alexandre Roche (top 5 in the “Tour du canton”) and Baptiste Fieux who tore up the race at 2’36 and 2’42 respectively. Baptiste passed the baton to Pierre Baqué, the winner of the 2015 Sainté-Lyon two-person relay, who then passed it along to the winner of the 2016 UTMB Ludovic Pommeret! In other words, this team of our sponsor Berthie Sport showed no mercy to its opponents.
The stands presenting various activities of the Staff Association through certain clubs and commercial partnerships in connection with Interfon, as well as offering refreshments and snack, allowed the many spectators who came to cheer on the runners to get information and share ideas in a friendly atmosphere.
The organisation of such an event requires however a substantial investment in order to cover all aspects of logistics, from preparation before the Race to putting in place the various activities and stands; and all this in compliance with CERN rules and ensuring the safety of the participants and the public. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the members of the Inform-Action Commission of the CERN Staff Association, and especially to Corinne Vetele, who orchestrated the event again this year. A big thank you goes out to the clubs as well for organising stands and demonstrations. It is a real pleasure to see CERN so vibrant and lively! We would also like to thank the HSE unit and the CERN firefighters for their participation as runners and guardian angels.
Finally, we pay tribute to the Running Club for their commitment to this Race – its success year after year is a definite highlight of the social life at CERN.
Please visit the website of the Running Club for all the results of the Race: https://runningclub.web.cern.ch/RelayResults.
Congratulations also to the lucky winners of the raffle organized by the Staff Association in partnership with Interfon. You can find the list of the winners on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StaffAssociation.Cern.
