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Sydney/Canberra, Australia, August 23, 2004 - With the global expansion of the JPMorgan Corporate Challenge, it's not much of an exaggeration to say that runners are training around the world for the culminating event of the series – October's Championship on Park Avenue in New York City. Far off in his own little corner of the world, Nick Walshe is running through the winter on the trails and roads of Australia 's capital city of Canberra for an opportunity beyond his wildest dreams. “I'm stoked” said Walshe “I haven't traveled overseas before so I'm really excited about it all.” Walshe will travel to New York for the October 2 JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship as a member of the winning PricewaterhouseCoopers mixed team from the Sydney Corporate Challenge. Even getting this far was a bit of a stretch for Walshe, who had to fly 300 kilometers to Sydney from Canberra especially for the Corporate Challenge last November. But once on the scenic Sydney course, Walshe motored home in 18:39, anchoring a PricewaterhouseCoopers mixed team that finished more than two minutes ahead of runner-up BT Financial Group. Walshe will be joined in New York by teammates Rod Simpson, Lana Edmonds and Patricia Oswald. PricewaterhouseCoopers also wins Female team title As a bonus, PricewaterhouseCoopers used a 1, 2, 5 overall finish from Penelope Sarmiento (21:52), Kellie Gread (21:53) and Sally Doppler (23:14), along with a 25:15 effort from Sietske Mulder, to win the female team title by a whopping seven minutes. Currently, they have the fifth fastest female team time in the 2004 series. It was a fitting payoff for PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has shown incredible support for its Corporate Challenge team members. This support ranges from giving staff members time off to train and compete in the Corporate Challenge, through to paying for Walshe's flight to Sydney.
Sydney 's other qualifying team is Focus International Freight, whose Youcef Abdi was the individual race winner in 16:24, the third fastest time in the 2004 series. The rest of Focus International Freight's team was made up of Anthony Moran ( 18:41 ), Gary Simondson (18:43), and Mark Carmody (20:45). Carmody also was the first Most Senior Executive to finish at Sydney and is believed to be the only MSE to be a member of a Championship qualifying team this season. Although Walshe and his teammates train throughout the year – they have certainly upped the intensity of their regimes in the lead up to the Championship. Edmonds and Oswald take part in PricewaterhouseCoopers' group running sessions during lunchtime on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, either through Sydney 's Domain or at Wentworth Park. The Friday run is a girls-only event for members of the winning female and mixed teams. Sarmiento, the Sydney champion, is one member of the PricewaterhouseCoopers female team who regularly attends the Friday sessions. Female champion had been running less than a year Sarmiento's success in November's race has been a source of inspiration for all the women in her Friday training group – particularly because she had been running for less than a year when she won the 2003 Sydney Corporate Challenge. “She's fantastic – very talented,” says Edmonds of Sarmiento. “She's really fast, and when she runs, she just runs.” Aside from natural ability, luck and training, Sarmiento also attributes her success to a pre-race sugar fix of banana sandwiches and Starburst lolly pops. Although she enjoyed running at school, Sarmineto only started running again by accident after Mulder, one of her PricewaterhouseCoopers teammates, invited Sarmiento to join her for a run during lunchtime one day. Sermiento discovered she had an affinity for pounding the pavement, joined Sietske on PricewaterhouseCoopers' winning female team and the rest, as they say, is history. In addition to the group sessions, most members of the winning PricewaterhouseCoopers mixed and women's teams put in a large amount of individual training. For example, Oswald also runs with a triathlon training group called Spotty Dog and makes sure she is familiar with the JPMorgan Corporate Challenge Sydney course at Centennial Park. “I usually train at Centennial Park, sometimes we run from Centennial Park down to the beaches at Bondi and Bronte” said Oswald. For Walshe, Canberra has great trails, running community Almost 200 miles away in Canberra, Walshe also loves to take in the sights of his city while training. “I regularly do 100km a week,” said Walshe. “We have great lakes and reserves, and we have a lot of mountain trails. The lakes are great scenic places to train in.” Although his Corporate Challenge teammates are based in Sydney, Walshe has found fellowship among other runners and built a local training support network. “There's a great running community down here. I've got a fairly large group that's a mixture of young kids and young adults” said Walshe. It's worked out so well for Walshe that he now is dreaming about some unique “firsts” on his trip to New York in October. A priority is to watch his first live gridiron game at Giants Stadium. He also has a unique item that he wants to purchase in the world's shopping mecca - an authentic Washington Redskins NFL shirt. But, he adds, he isn't planning on risking life and limb by wearing it to the Giants game! |
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