London Rises to the Challenge But Comes Up Short in 10K Run

London Rises to the Challenge But Comes Up Short in 10K Run

LONDON, June 3/PRNewswire/ -- TV personality and keen fitness follower Denise Van Outen
today led 2200 of London's finest runners to a brave performance in the
inaugural Norwich Union City V City 10K. Leading the rallying cry, Denise
made a valiant attempt to set the pace but despite their sterling efforts,
London's runners narrowly lost out to Glasgow, the eventual winners of the
event. Olympic silver medallist Liz McColgan took first place in the women's
race, giving Scots another reason to celebrate over their English rivals.

The Norwich Union City v City 10K run, which took place on
Sunday 3rd June, was a groundbreaking new event which saw fun runners and
seasoned professionals alike fly the flag for their home city, as London went
head to head with Liverpool, and Glasgow, in the UK's first 10k relay.

With the Olympic Games being held in London in five years
time, London's performance today demonstrated that the future of British
athletics is in good shape with several fine individual performances
contributing to an overall time of 54:51. Glasgow narrowly won with a time of
54:21 and Liverpool took second place with 54:38. Over 3,500 competitors took
part across three cities and although Glasgow was by no means the favourite
going into the race, the overall margin of victory was so slight that each of
the three cities can be proud of their performance.

A reflective Denise commented after the race, "Despite the
result I am really pleased that we got so many people involved, it's great
for the city to try and get one over on the other two and even though we
didn't win we can all be proud of our efforts and start thinking about how we
can win the trophy next year."

Simon Machell, Chief Executive of Norwich Union Insurance, commented on
the success of the event and London's valiant efforts: "As the team behind UK
Athletics, we aim to inspire the nation to join us in supporting and
participating in the sport. Norwich Union is committed to making it easier
for 10 million children to get active by 2012 and our City v City 10K has
been a great way of getting people out of their armchairs and leading by
example. It was great to see so many people taking up the challenge and
congratulations to London for their efforts. We hope to see even more people
participating next year."

GBP5 from each race entry fee in today's run has gone towards a
new Norwich Union fund which will be used to support over 200 sports
initiatives across the UK in the next year. The public is invited to support
sport in their local community by visiting
http://www.norwichunion.com/joinourteam and voting for their favourite local
initiative which could have a chance of winning up to GBP50,000 in valuable
funding.

Photography available from Getty publicity at http://www.gettyimages.com

Norwich Union & UK Athletics

Norwich Union has been the number one sponsor of UK Athletics since 1999
with a significant amount of money invested in developing the sport at
grassroots level. This support is making it easier for every child in the UK
to have the opportunity to have access to athletics by 2012, and provide
extensive support to teachers to deliver the sport in schools. By 2012 it is
anticipated that over 10 million children will have been actively engaged in
Norwich Union-funded athletics schemes.

As the team behind UK Athletics, Norwich Union's support at every level
will add value to the existing World Class Pathway investment in elite
athletes, provide more opportunities to help identify future champions, and
also help prepare children for life challenges through increased sporting
participation.

For more information on how to get involved in UK Athletics
and Norwich Union initiatives, visit http://www.norwichunion.com/joinourteam
or call UK Athletics on 0870-998-6800

Source: Norwich Union

For media enquiries, please contact the following: Glasgow: Gerri Carr (Norwich Union/H&K), +44(0)777-613-311; Liverpool: Ben Goldhagen (Norwich Union/H&K), +44(0)784-102-7002; London: Lucy Windsor (Norwich Union/H&K), +44(0)7792-721859

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