Chariots of Fire

More than 40 teams representing students, colleges and university departments were among nearly 400 teams of six runners competing over the 1.7 mile course.

Cambridge University Hare and Hounds continued their winning tradition, their first team completing the course in a combined time of just 50 minutes and 18 seconds.

The fastest college cup went to Caius MCR A with 58 minutes and 35 seconds and the fastest departmental team were the Cambridge University Clinical School Sharks in one hour 48 seconds.

This year’s charity was the East Anglian Air Ambulance, with funds raised going towards construction of a helipad at Addenbrooke’s Hospital so that patients can be transferred quickly to care facilities.

The race, now in its fifteenth year and always a popular town-gown event, has already raised more that £492,000 and is expected to break the half a million threshold this year.

The race was inspired by the 1980 David Puttnam film Chariots of Fire, which told the story of two British athletes, Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, who ran in the 1924 Olympic Games. The film featured the famed race around Trinity College Great Court in Cambridge which Abrahams won. While not practical to allow more than 2,000 runners to run through Great Court, the course does take a swing through Trinity College grounds and over Trinity Bridge in tribute.

The Honorary President of the Chariots of Fire race is Sir Arthur Marshall OBE (Jesus, 1922), a member of the Great Britain 1924 Olympic team, who celebrated his 102nd birthday last year. In past years he has presented the trophies, but this year he was unable to attend and his son, Michael Marshall CBE (Jesus, 1952), Chairman and Chief Executive of the Marshall Group, made the presentations.