SCIoI doubles up at the 2025 Berliner Wasserbetriebe 5×5 km Relay

By: Maria Ott

Sneakers laced, spirits high: this June, members of Science of Intelligence (SCIoI) once again joined the crowd at the Berliner Wasserbetriebe 5×5 km Team Relay in Tiergarten Park. This year they did it in stereo and SCIoI fielded two teams: the SCIoI Super Fast Runners and the SCIoI Ultra Fast Runners.

The 5×5 km relay is one of Berlin’s most beloved summer sporting events, drawing together nearly 6,000 teams from all corners of the city. Hobby joggers and marathoners, university institutes and companies, all join the competition. The rules are simple: five runners per team, each completing a 5-kilometer loop before handing off the baton in the exchange zone. It’s a race where the emphasis is on shared effort, team spirit, and collective achievement, making it a perfect playground for an interdisciplinary research environment like SCIoI.

Still, that didn’t stop our teams from putting in some serious performance.

The SCIoI Ultra Fast Runners team, consisting of Mark Boon, Sebastian Pohl, Julie Ouerfelli-Ethier, Asieh Daneshi, and Uroš Petkovic ran an impressive collective time of 2:05:40, placing 717th overall. A special shout out goes to Mark, who clocked a personal best of 19:19 over 5K! The SCIoI Super Fast Runners with Niek Andresen, Eitan Hemed, Oussama Zenkri, Furkan Davulcu, and Elena Merdjanovska followed not far behind with a finish time of 2:14:32, securing 1764th place out of the nearly 6,000 competing teams.

While the hand-offs in the exchange zone (the most chaotic, spirited stretch of the course) may have required sharp eyes and loud voices, the rest of the evening was all about relaxing. After the run, both teams gathered for a well-earned picnic in the park. Between bites and laughs, participants cooled down and caught up, a welcome change of pace from the usual day-to-day of research..

This year, the event was coordinated by SCIoI member Furkan Davulcu, who ran in the Super Fast team, and also ensured that everything from team logistics to post-race snacks was in place. Reflecting on the day, he summed it up best:

“Both groups did great, and there were good vibes. Most people were able to run faster than they anticipated, or were happy with their runs.”

Here’s to team spirit, good weather, and even better legs. Until next year!

Research

An overview of our scientific work

See our Research Projects