NZ Black Fern and UC student line up in annual UC Tower Race

NZ Black Fern and UC student lining up in the annual UC Tower Race

March 4, 2014

Black Fern and New Zealand Sevens rugby player Haile Hurring will be among the starters in the University of Canterbury’s first Tower Race tomorrow (March 5) since the earthquakes.

The inaugural race was held nine years ago and tomorrow’s race, starting at noon, will be the first since the February 22, 2011 earthquake. Hurring is a UC College of Education student.

The record up the 264 steps, 11 floors and around half the building was set by Matt Harris in 2008 with a time of 1 minute 34 seconds. Alicia Evans ran the fastest women’s race in 2010 in 1min 51sec.

One of the organisers, Kat Henderson of the UC RecCentre, says the competitors will race from the Science Block lawn in groups of 10. They will go around the library building and enter on the opposite side. They will then go up the west end stairs to the 11th floor.

The event is organised by the UC Library and the RecCentre, which is free to students. A total of 8800 people joined the centre last year and membership is expected to rise to up to 10,000 this year.

ENDS

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