Olympic spirit come to Malvern

The Olympic Torch Relay passed through Malvern this morning on its epic 8000 mile journey around the UK to the Olympic Stadium in London. Our local council have been working hard with a range of people and organisations to ensure that we all remember Friday 25th May. Excitement has travelled with the Torch since the relay began last Saturday as record numbers of spectators turn out the see the flame travel through their home town.

So what of the actual relay well I don’t know if it was my vantage point but the convoy seemed to consist of a huge number of support vehicles, multiple police motorbikes and finally the torch bearer, denying many people the chance to see the flame. Each “runner” gets to cover about 300 yards and so most of them make the most of their fame and walk and wave the route enjoying the celebrity of the moment so it’s no surprise that it was running late.

This post is a fitting time to announce an extreme event that one of Malvern Instruments employees will be participating in the ‘Paris Val d’Yvette-Londres 2012 en courant’. Christophe is our Customer Support Manager in France.

Malvern Instruments is pleased to be sponsoring the ‘Paris Val d’Yvette-Londres 2012 en courant’ and wishes success to everyone taking part in this unique 260 mile (460 km) run, which starts in Paris on 21 July and ends at the Olympic Stadium in London on 30 July. We are especially pleased to be supporting Malvern team member Christophe Lasne, whose fundraising for ‘Aide et Action’, a charity dedicated to promoting access to education and improvements in child care, was first inspired by a meeting while on a business trip to Guinea in 2004, where a local Malvern colleague demonstrated at first hand the strength and commitment of this organization.

Christophe Lasne and 17 other runners will set off from Paris on 22nd July and over nine days will run approximately 420km or 260 miles!  The running team will be coached by Philippe Fuchs the famous ultra marathon runner who has made a name for himself running extreme distances and since the Barcelona Olympics has run from his home town in France including the 2008 Beijing Olympics which involved crossing the Gobi desert.

We have 21  employees (we have over 280 here in the UK office in Malvern) joining Christophe and his team for the last 10 km (6 miles) arriving as near to the Olympic Stadium as possible on Monday, 30th July.

We will be providing daily updates on Christophe’s progress via a number of channels.

As a company we are innovators in the application of materials characterization technology to aid research and the development of products and processes. Not only do we appreciate the value of education and learning, we also admire and support the effort and endeavour of those prepared to face a challenge. We look forward to following the progress of all the runners, and welcoming them safely to London.

Good luck and good running.