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The 2004 JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship will be the most global and competitive in history. The best corporate runners from six countries on five continents will compete on Saturday, October 2 on New York's famous Park Avenue. This is one of a series of features about teams training for the Championship. You'll want to visit all the stops on the Road to the Championship to read about the participants who have found the perfect blend of workplace productivity and race course swiftness. |
6th STOP: FRANKFURT
Members of the blue-shirted Roche Diagnostics Group receive their Mixed Team Tiffany trophy at the 2003 Championship. From left are: JPMorgan Chase's David Nolan, Christian Hoerauf, Katja Potthof, Jutta Kammer, Mary Fazulak of American Airlines, Dr. Matthias Korner, and Grete Waitz.
Frankfurt's Roche Diagnostics Group
an impressive picture of success
Dr. Matthias Korner leads a group of runners out of the Helmsley Tunnel on Park Avenue in the 2003 Championship. |
Frankfurt, Germany ( Sept. 7, 2004 ) – They are one of the pictures of success in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge. And, in this case, the picture is much more than skin deep.
Roche Diagnostics Group has won the Mixed team title three times running in the annual October finale that this year includes competitors from five continents. In June, Roche Diagnostics faced the largest field ever assembled in Corporate Challenge history, some 51,140 participants from 1,831 companies in an annual extravaganza in Frankfurt that has been called, “The Friendly Competition.” Once again, it was Roche Diagnostics coming out on top in the Mixed Division, winning by six minutes.
And so, it is off to New York for an October 2 Championship appearance. But this time, Roche Diagnostics' defense of its Mixed title may be a bit more spirited than in previous years. A formidable challenge looms from Boston 's Saucony team, which was a distant third in 2002, but closed the gap to 1 minute, six seconds in finishing as the runner-up last year. Saucony is hoping its third try brings a charmed title.
Roche is not only talented, but very solid
Only time will tell, of course, but Roche is hardly likely to give up its title easily. This a team that not only is obviously very talented, but is solid in other important ways, too.
“All of the runners on the Roche team are extremely nice, friendly and sharp,” said Angelika Muller, race coordinator at Frankfurt. “They like sports, they like their jobs – and the Corporate Challenge is the perfect combination of both for them. I do not know of another company in Germany that transfers the values of the Corporate Challenge so perfectly into the company with the goal to motivate employees and to get a better result for the company.
“Besides all of this,” adds Muller, “this team is always in a good mood, laughing and having fun!”
In 1997, the team came to the race in four cars. This year, it came in four Pullman busses.
At Frankfurt, Roche Diagnostics placed three of its four first team Mixed runners into either the male or female top five – not easy given the size and strength of the Frankfurt 's field. Once again, Dr. Matthias Körner a former German marathon champion, led the way. He finished fourth in 16:44, the ninth fastest male time in the 2004 series.
Female anchor Katja Potthof again led the Roche Diagnostics' women. Potthof knocked some 21 seconds off her 2003 time with a 20:10 clocking that brought her third place overall at Frankfurt. Close behind in fourth was Gisela Grunwald in 20:45.
As a team, Roche Diagnostics posted a time of 1:14:59. That is almost a minute faster than their time in 2003, and is the best Mixed team title in 2004, more than two minutes better than Saucony.
Emphasis on Mixed teams is no accident at Roche
“We do a lot of advertisements in our company newspapers, in the intranet and we are helping employees to prepare themselves to participate,” said team manager Detlev Lalla. “The top runners have training programs. I motivate good runners and our goal is to bring more than three mixed teams into the top 10 (at Frankfurt ). This year, we got two teams into the top 10 (also finishing ninth).”
The emphasis on mixed teams is no accident at Roche Diagnostics, which this saw its overall participation increase to 200 runners.
“We look for strong runners and we create our policy only to compete in the mixed team competition,” said Lalla. “The reason is easy. Women and men are participating equally in all social activities in the world and we would like to demonstrate that our company believes in that.”
A maker of self-monitoring systems for diabetes, anticoagulation, and urinalysis systems, Roche Diagnostics also believes that the willingness of its employees to compete in events such as the Corporate Challenge, spills over into success in the workplace and in life in general.
"There is nothing unusual about our runners," said Lalla. "All of them have jobs as head of departments, project managers, development engineers, or key account managers. Most of them also have a family. But all of them have a history in sport."
And, Lalla said, they still find time to do the training to succeed at a high level. The team's top female runner, Katja Potthof, is a perfect example. She is the mother of a small daughter, works full-time, and was a former member of the German Duathlon team, competing in European Championships.
"We like to bring our company to well-regarded competitions (like the Corporate Challenge)," said Lalla. "Therefore, we get a lot of support from our senior management, some of whom competed in Frankfurt. It is a great honor to be invited by JPMorgan Chase to participate in the New York City final. And, no doubt, there is a lot of hunger to win the race again."
It would certainly be no surprise if they did.
Frankfurt's talent level is impressive in all areas
In addition to Roche Diagnostics, Frankfurt has two other very fast championship teams, plus the two fastest individual runners in the 2004 Series - Oliver Mintzlaff of Puma (16:09) and Petra Wassiluk of Motion Event (18:58).
In the Male division, ViV Fonds Shop GmbH has stepped up as a challenger to season-leading Transwerk of Johannesburg. ViV Fonds recorded a quick 1:09:22, a little over 2 minutes behind the South Africans.
In the Female division, Polizei Hessen also has the second-fastest time of the season, trailing only six-time champion Royal Mail Letters with a time of 1:25:49.
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