Organised by Square Mile Sport and headlined by Bloomberg, the sixth edition of the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay Singapore took place last Thursday night with 166 corporate teams comprising of ten members each, taking to the city’s financial district to battle it out for top spot in the annual event.

Click here to view the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay 2018 photos.

More photos are now added to the Asics Relay 2018 photo gallery. Click here to view photos.

An immersive team-building experience 

A one-of-a-kind immersive team building experience taking place in 11 different cities around the world such as New York, London, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and not forgetting Singapore, the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay is unlike other corporate events where individuals compete against one another. Rather, this race is all about the team and coming together to earn bragging rights for your corporation.

Said Maggie Ng, Head of ASEAN Bloomberg, “Square Mile Relay offers a perfect opportunity for the city’s most competitive runners to come together for a night of camaraderie, teamwork, celebration and networking. We hope to see more teams next year, as more companies continue to install healthy lifestyles with the workplace.”

During the race, each team member is tasked with running the one-mile course in the fastest possible time before passing the baton on to their colleague. 

Standard Chartered Bank is the champion

And emerging as the champion for the 2018 race, had been Standard Chartered Bank, with its team crossing the line of the ten-lap course, in 53 minutes and 50 seconds.

Said team captain Mohammed Rahim, 35, the Head of Data Governance at Standard Chartered Bank, “This is our sixth attempt at the Relay and it feels great to have finally won! The team performance exceeded our expectations and we are extremely proud of our achievement.”

Their Strategy 

He added, “Our strategy tonight had been to go hard and hold on for your life; after all the course is just one mile and that’s five minutes of your life. So this is what I told everyone to do.”

And Rahim also added that most of their strongest runners had been at the front.

He said, “The first five runners were our best ones so that we could get a good lead. Then our sixth to ninth runners were not as strong, but we had a fast runner right at the end, which was lucky. Overall our team was very consistent though, with every runner clocking about five minutes for a mile.”

The Standard Chartered Bank team had been quite confident of their chances of victory, from the very beginning. 

Said Rahim, “We realised that we had a chance to win when all of our runners arrived. That was when we knew that we had a strong team, so as long as everyone ran consistently, then our chances were good.”

New running route was good for fast runners 

At the same time, Rahim felt that the new running route this year had featured less turns and more straights, so this helped the team.

He said, “The course has definitely improved from previous years. It is better for faster runners now, because you do not need to turn as much. You only need to focus on running which is good.”

Trained weekly at the track 

To prepare for their winning run, the Standard Chartered Bank runners had trained weekly at the track, pushing each other during every session.

Said Rahim, “We practised every Monday at the track and we trained our hearts out. Eventually it paid off. It was a great result.”

Continued Rahim, “And tonight we learned that if you keep on trying and be persistent in life, you will get there. We tried for six years to win the title at the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay and we finally got there. So keep on trying and you will eventually succeed in whatever you want to do.”

Macquarie finish second

In second place had been Macquarie, the defending champion as well as the winners for the past five years of the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay. They had finished with a time of 54 minute and 35 seconds.

Said Cameron Brooks, in his late 30s, a Senior Manager at Macquarie and the team captain, “I am very proud of our team. We did quite well, coming in second, but it was a little disappointing because we were aiming to retain the title. But well done to Standard Chartered, they had a very, very strong team.”

He added, “We tried to push them all the way to the end. We definitely did that, but they got away from us towards the latter part of the race. But we gave it our all. We regained the lead somewhere around the seventh or the eighth leg, but they had very quick runners and we could not stay with them.”

Their strategy 

Macquarie’s strategy, similar to Standard Chartered’s, had also been to place their quickest runners at the beginning. 

Explained Cameron, “We wanted to get space to start off, between us and the rest of the runners, and then after that, for everyone to do their best. That was pretty much it.”

He added, “So our strongest runners were at the front; if you look at the times, we had two very quick runners to start off with and that helped us to get some breathing space as it can be quite crowded out there once you get to the third or the fourth lap and you’ll then have to start to weave your way around a bit more.”

Happy with the race as a whole

But despite the disappointment of not winning, Cameron added that he and his team were very happy with the overall organisation and staging of the race this year and added that they’d had lots of fun.

He said, “This is always a great event, particularly the fact that it is a relay, so you have to work as a team and everyone has to commit and do their part. There is also a lot of camaraderie that goes with such a race, and it’s exciting to see colleagues and cheer them on. Events like this really helps to improve bonding amongst colleagues and friends.”

Added Cameron, “I think that Bloomberg is doing an excellent job with this race. It’s always lots of fun, and everyone is smiling here and having a great time.”

Back to the drawing board

Even though they all had fun, Cameron added that there’ll be work to do and that it’ll be back to the drawing board for next year – as Macquarie is already thinking about how to reclaim the title for next year’s edition of the race.

He said, “Well done to Standard Chartered – but we will be hungry next year to challenge them for the title.”

Continued Cameron, “So we are definitely thinking about how we can shave off a couple of seconds per runner. We will have one whole year to prepare for that. But in the meantime, we wish our team in Hong Kong all the best for their upcoming leg there.”

The Hong Kong edition of the race is scheduled to take place on Thursday 8th November.

Standard Chartered aim to defend their title 

However Standard Chartered Bank’s Rahim reiterated that they will not make things easy for Macquarie. 

He said, “Macquarie have been a very good competitor and congratulations to them for actually sustaining such a good level for so long. We have provided good competition though.”

And Rahim added, “But next year, we definitely hope to come back and defend our title. Macquarie have been great champions and credit to them, but now it is our time to be champions and we have to hold that title with integrity, so we will come back and defend it next year, for sure.”

Norges Bank Investment Management finish third

Coming in third and rounding off the podium positions had been Norges Bank Investment Management, with a timing of 1 hours and 41 seconds. The fastest mixed team had been GIC Private Limited, a capital market company. They finished in 1 hour 1 minute and 58 seconds.

Said the GIC team captain Sylvester Wee, “It was a great team bonding experience. We have been training together with weekly runs and occasional time trials, so we are glad that our efforts have paid off.”

Ashley Miles is the event’s fastest runner

And the fastest runner of the night had been Ashley Miles from Macquarie, who had run his 1 mile lap in an impressive 4 minutes 51 seconds.

Giving back to the community 

And building on to the event’s long-standing tradition of supporting local communities and giving back too, the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay Singapore teamed up with SportsCares to give back to the community as part of the global initiative, The Extra Mile.

The Extra Mile aims to address unique social challenges in each city where the relay race takes place and runners are encouraged to vote for one of three causes that will have yearlong support via a USD $25,000 donation, as well as the chance to volunteer in activities that address the winning challenge.