Ark schools triumph at lockdown Sports Day Challenge

Friday 17th July 2020

Today, the winners of the Ark Sports Day Challenge were announced. In total, 3,805 people across the network took part and completed a fantastic 195,027 km. 

Ark Academy won the coveted top spot for the school that travelled the furthest. They covered an incredible 23,943 km over the two weeks of the challenge. In second place was Ark Dickens who clocked up 23,566km and in third place, Ark Alexandra with 19,396km.  

In total, 373 teams participated, with The Science Team at Ark Alexandra taking first place in the team category, having travelled the furthest with 5,536km km. The Secondary Family & Friends team at Ark Academy were second 5,319km, and Ark Academy Primary came third with 3,741km. 

The Ark Sports Day Challenge took place 1st - 15th July and encouraged students, parents, staff, and school communities to 'travel' the distance around the world - which is 40,000 km - by running, walking, cycling or any other inventive ways. 

The response to the challenge was overwhelming, in just five days and 11 hours, participants had completed the 40,000km target. So, the challenge had to be extended into space – with participants travelling the distance around the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto and beyond. 

Other winners announced included: 

Furthest distance walked:  
1st.    Steve Hudsmith, Ark Charter, 268km 
2nd.    Kim Young, Ark Charter, 267km 
3rd.    Prabhjot Gurm, Ark Isaac Newton, 250km

Furthest distance ran:  
1st.    Charles Shaw, Ark Central, 410km 
2nd.    Tom Rye, Ark Bolingbroke, 331km 
3rd.    Russell Lyne, Ark Dickens, 204km 

Furthest distance cycled:  
1st.    Aaron Bell, Ark Central, 1,174km 
2nd.    Ben Ib, Ark Evelyn Grace, 1,058km 
3rd.    Peter Haylock, Ark Burlington Danes, 1,046km 

While the challenge aimed to motivate people to have fun and keep active, participants also managed to raise £20,000. The money will help Ark schools and students recover and build the needed resilience for the coming weeks and months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The full results are available on the website: www.arksportsdaychallenge.com/