Man vs. Tube – Chase Armitage vs. Tamer Hassan
So with the Olympic Games just around the corner, most of you should have seen the posters lining the public transport system. For those that haven’t the poster looks like this:
This can mean one of two things – the Olympic Games will be the biggest event that London has seen since the 1966 World Cup and that the sheer amount of people using the transport system will mean it may be a little bit tight. Or it could mean that panic buttons have been hit and we're admitting that maybe we should have started upgrading the tubes a little bit earlier.
Well, to put our much loved London Underground to the test and promote the fact that it is definitely easier to walk, or in this case freerun, around London during the Olympic Games, Chase Armitage a professional Freerunner, one of the best in the sport today took on Tamer Hassan travelling by tube, in a race through the capital.
The Race
The Race was from Borough Market to Royal Festival Hall and saw Chase Armitage taking the quickest route possible. Tamer however would be using the trusty Jubilee line leaving from London Bridge and getting to Waterloo, in the quickest time that a 10 carriage underground train would allow.
The race began at 13.00 and we estimated it was to last around 13 minutes, of course I didn’t fancy running behind Chase so we waited at the finish line. Anticipating which direction a Freerunner is going to cross the finish Line is quite difficult, however, the noise of onlookers as Chase threw himself over walls, around posts and executed some pretty amazing jumps, told us that he couldn't be too far away. And sure enough we witnessed Case crossing the finish Line in 11min 21sec.
Tamer however came 2nd with a time of 22mins 31sec (note to TFL – the estimated journey time for that specific route is 14mins. Note to Olympic tourists this year: you might want to Freerun, or leave 10 minutes earlier.
To get the athletes thoughts on the Olympics, Freerunning and other bizarre question we love asking at Chillisauce, we interviewed both Chase and Tamer, which you can view on the blog shortly.
About the Author
Adrian Simpson Adrian Simpson is a writer and TV presenter with a profound love of the outdoors. His family, snow, sea, brewing, vinyl, guitars and VW buses mean the world to him.
