Results posted | The Championship in photos
Fortune 500 Championship qualifying teams posted

Your passport to watch the Championship Relive all the excitement of the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship via video web streaming. Just click the connection format you want in the graphic at right - Real Media low or high bandwidth or Windows Media low or high bandwidth. With one click, you'll be able to follow all the action on the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge "Today Show." Catch all the interviews and race action of the most international Series Championship ever held as South Africa's Transwerk runs to the fastest-ever team time and Beverly Jenkins wins her fifth title.

Transwerk, Royal Mail, Roche
sweep to Championship titles

New York, NY (October 2, 2004) - Seconds after completing an individual victory that would propel Transwerk to a record-setting win in the 22 nd annual JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship, Kays Kototsa unfurled a large South African flag, held it aloft, and ran in triumph and jubilation on Park Avenue.

His flag-draped victory celebration put an emotional exclamation point on the most global Corporate Challenge in the 28 years of the Series. Kototsa was first among runners from five continents, with teams from Africa and Asia joining squads from North America, Europe and Australia for the first time this year.

His victory, along with that of five-time Championship winner Beverly Jenkins of London 's Royal Mail Letters, also punctuated a day when excellence was on full display on corporate running's biggest stage.

How good were the international athletes who gathered at 270 Park Avenue on a cloudy, perfect day for running?

Consider Transwerk. For the first time in history, a team had each of its four runners finish under 17 minutes for the 3.5-mile distance. Transwerk won by five minutes over a very good Royal Mail Letters Male team. It was the fastest team effort in the history of the Series.

"Oh, yes, yes, we are very happy with what we've done," said Johannes Ndala, who finished second overall.

For the record, Johannesburg 's times were: Kototsa (16:27), Ndala (16:34), Johannesburg champion Hermans Pedi (fifth overall in 16:47), and Patrick Ngakatau (sixth overall in 16:50).

A runner stops his warmup to watch a live pre-race interview on the Corporate Challenge "Today" Show on a giant Park Ave. screen.

Consider Royal Mail Letters. The ladies from London won by almost eight minutes. They would have finished third among Mixed teams and their time beat two thirds of the finest Male teams assembled from the 15-city circuit. They even beat their winning time in 2003 by five minutes.

"Winning never gets old," said Jenkins, as teammates Claire Martin, Trudi Thomson, and Shirley Griffiths nodded and smiled in agreement after their latest victory, which is number seven in a row.

"There is always a new challenge, new excitement," said Griffiths.

And consider Roche Diagnostics. The Frankfurt powerhouse again held off Boston 's Saucony to win in 1:17:42, about a minute faster than their winning time in 2003. It was Roche's fourth Mixed win in a row and fifth in the last six years.

All this excellence was captured for the first time on a live video show, the Corporate Challenge "Today" Show (see the show by clicking the links at the top of the Home Page). A truck-sized mobile screen overhang the start/finish area so runners and spectators could see the show live. The show also was shown on video displays throughout JPMorgan Chase headquarters at 270 Park Avenue.

And what a show it was. There was some serious swiftness on display. So, what is the magic ingredient, the secret, to running so fast?

Talent obviously has its place, but, said the winners, so does physical activity and a love of running.

"Everyday at 5 in the morning, we run," said Transwerk's Kototsa. The team members are based in Bloemfontein, best known in running circles as the home of 1984 Olympic middle-distance star Zola Budd. Their morning runs are actually a commute to work. They're about 12 kilometers long and are repeated at night - day after day.

It left the team very fit, as they demonstrated early on in the race. Defending champion Chris Davies went out fast, as he did last year, but close on his heels were the four Transwerk runners, working as a single unit.

"This was our plan, to work as a team," said Ndala. Later, he said, they urged Kototsa to chase down Davies.

"I thought I could catch him," Kototsa said. He did, shorly after re-entering Park Avenue via the tunnel below the signature Helmsley Buidling.

Royal Mail Letters' Beverly Jenkins becomes a 5-time Championship victor.

Only a great race from New Jersey's Michael Spence - third in 16:35 - and Davies' fourth-place effort in 16:38 prevented a Transwerk sweep.

Meanwhile, when asked about the secret of her success, Royal Mail's Jenkins had a quick answer.

"Delivering the mail," she said.

She wasn't kidding. She, and each of her teammates, works as a mail deliverer, although in four different English cities.

"It's very hard," said Martin.

"You walk about 9-10 miles a day with 20 kilos on your back," added Griffiths.

"The hardest part is the hills," said Thomson.

"We don't train together, just get together mainly to race," said Jenkins. "But, we're obviously very fit."

That fitness not only carried Jenkins to her fifth individual Championship title, but her fastest time in years. She won in 19:14, easily defeating fellow London runner Joanne Ronaldson (19:48). Martin, runner-up here in 2003, followed in third, almost breaking 20 minutes in 20:01, with the first American finisher, Rochester 's Laura Bloedorn fourth in 20:02.

When she last won here in 2001, Jenkins ran 19:41.

"She is amazing to us," said Martin. "She just keeps getting faster and faster."

Interestingly, Jenkins was the only one of the Royal Mail Letters team not to go shopping in the days before the race.

"I was very serious about this event," said Jenkins.

Maybe, Martin suggested, we'll have to send her to the shops to have a chance of beating her.