Some of the City’s biggest firms took to the streets of London last Thursday evening to compete in the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay, officially started this year by Olympic legend Michael Johnson.

Some of the City’s biggest firms took to the streets of London last Thursday evening to compete in the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay, officially started this year by Olympic legend Michael Johnson.

In what turned out to be a fiercely contested race, the event saw more than 1,000 City workers pound the streets through the heart of the most famous Square Mile in the world, with defending champions Barclays looking to retain their crown from last year.

This year’s race was won by SenseCore AG, crossing the line in 54 minutes and 38 seconds, less than 30 seconds ahead of Barclays. JP Morgan came in third, with Bank of America, Slaughter and May and Legal & General also breaking the one hour-mark. The rest of the top ten was rounded off by Bloomberg, Commerzbank AG, Credit Agricole and Rothschild.

In front of a packed crowd in Guildhall Yard, four-time Olympic gold medal winner Michael Johnson, who also holds the world records for the 400 metres and the 4x400 metre relay, started the race – which sees teams comprised of ten runners each running one mile each.

“The atmosphere has been unbelievable. The unique layout certainly makes it a different challenge from anything I’ve ever experienced. I’m not sure I’d back myself on this course!” said Johnson.

“It was great to see the competitive edge that the City of London has to offer translated onto the track, if you can win this event you’ve certainly earned that right,” he added.

The largest ever number of London runners took on the course this year, with 108 teams competing in total, including Aberdeen Asset Management (11th), Credit Suisse (19th), Brooks Macdonald (34th) and BNP Paribas (45th).

SenseCore, which specialises in biomedical monitoring tools in the fields of sport and health care, also managed to secure a cheque for £5,000 for their designated charity, Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Individually, Nicholas Torry of Commerzbank led the way with a remarkable time of 4 minutes 58 seconds.

The baton now passes on to Singapore and Hong Kong, where the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay will take place on 2 October and 6 November, respectively.

(Your correspondent took part in the race and was proud of being able to do so for such a worthy event.)