Euretina early birds race for a good cause

An early alarm clock call was in order for scores of runners who turned out in the pre-dawndarkness in Nice to support this year’s Retina Race in aid of ORBIS.

Organised by EURETINA and sponsored by Alcon and Novartis, the fourth annual Retina Racetook place over five kilometres along the famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice, one of the Coted’Azur’s most popular walkways.

Drawn from the assorted ranks of ophthalmologists, scientists and exhibitors in town attending the15th Euretina Congress, 109 runners of all ages took part in the race, cheered on by a large crowd of colleagues, friends and family members.

After some gentle stretching and light refreshments,the runners were soon building up a sweat as they wound their way through the designated course. Jean Baptiste Deltour from France was the overall winner with a very impressive time of 19minutes and 37 seconds. The first female competitor past the winning post was Cristina Irigoyen from Spain who finished the race in just over 23 minutes.

While the emphasis of the Retina Race is firmly on the fun aspect of participating and raising money for charity, the runners were still keen to improve on personal best times and perhaps earn a place on the winner’s podium.

Speaking on behalf of EURETINA, Anat Loewenstein, co-founder of the race along with Stephane Wolf, said that the participants could be proud of their achievement in running for the noble goal of saving vision.

Jaymie Duke, Corporate Partnerships Officer at Orbis, also thanked all the participants for playing their part in raising money to go towards much-needed prevention of blindness programmes in the developing world.

Key race organiser Stephane Wolf thanked everyone who took part in the race and said he  hopedto see even more people taking part next year when the 16th EURETINA Congress will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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