Corporate Cup - From Inception to Institution

Don Leitch from CSIRO Human Nutrition Dept. established the Corporate Cup in 1981 to improve the health and fitness of office workers
4.5km was an ideal distance to achieve over 16 weeks. The challenge he set was to improve each fortnight and gain points in the process
With help from Achper SA Branch and Life. Be in it. staff the event attracted over 600 participants in the first year – deeming it a great success
Achper SA Branch was the benefactor of the event and was later given ownership
Life. Be in it was later appointed to manage the Corporate Cup

The event was first located at Adelaide Oval, it then moved to Peace Park before finding its home at Pinky Flat (opposite the Cricket & Tennis Grounds). This was ideal as participants made use of the amenities both at the Cricket and Tennis locations, they could also park their cars in the northern cricket ground car park.
It didn’t take long before sponsors were found to support this now growing event with Channel 10 claiming naming rights and other major and minor sponsors

Recording times started with stop watchers calling out the times which were taken down by recorders at the finish area
Everyone was given a time to start on the minute (every minute) and the exact time was recorded again by the staff

The consequences of this were massive lines and time wasted waiting to get to a recorder to give times. It was a hit and miss method.
Finally, it was decided the Corporate Cup needed an electronic method of timing. The shoe dag adopted by the City-Bay Fun Run was unsuitable for this event. A local business, Data Net and Software Logistics solved the problem with a new scanning system operational in 2008.

In the early days of the cup, results were far more tactile. Each person was given a start and finish time which were then punched into cards and sent to Canberra for processing. Eventually, Farmers Trustee allowed us to use their 1 room computer until personal PC’s became the norm.

Colonial introduced free t-shirts for all participants in 1999 as part of their sponsorship agreement.
The KM tracker category was introduced in 2019 to allow a virtual component with the impact of COVID-19
The Corporate Cup continues to attract over 4,000 participants, and 700 teams annually with modernised procedures, but the same opportunities. We are proud of our past, and with your support are excited for the future.