Over 16,800 take part in J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge

SINGAPORE - A total of 16,861 runners from 356 companies took part in the 11th J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge on Thursday. The number of entrants is a record for this race, which has grown since 2009 when it attracted 9,924 entrants.

The 5.6km race began on the Esplanade Bridge and finished adjacent to the F1 Pit Building at Marina Bay.

Stuart Haynes of Morgan Stanley was the men's individual winner at 18:21 while Suzy Walsham of Symantec successfully defended her women's title with a course record 19:25.

Deloitte won the largest participation award with a whopping 892 entrants, followed by StarHub (680); PricewaterhouseCoopers (651); ANZ Bank (555); BNP Paribas (381); Visa (297); SAP (286); DBS (230); Barclays (220); and Credit Suisse (200).

J.P. Morgan also made a donation on behalf of each entrant to Operation Smile Singapore, the third consecutive year that organisation has served as the beneficiary. Lawrence Wong, Acting Minister, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information, flagged off the runners from the Esplanade Bridge.

The Corporate Challenge debuted in Singapore in 2004 and since has been held every April. This year's race is also part of J.P. Morgan's year-long celebration to mark 50 years of doing business in the city.