More than 1,500 primary school children took part in an INEOS GO Run For Fun® event on Tuesday 21st July at the National Sports Centre, cheered on by crowds of supporters and former Team GB Captain and ambassador, Jenny Meadows.

Jenny is the 2015 Indoor British Champion and 2011 World 800m Silver medallist. She led the children in a mass warm-up and was on hand to offer encouragement to all the participants.

Jenny said: “I’m delighted to be involved in yet another GO Run For Fun event. The campaign is going from strength to strength and it’s great to be able to play a part in inspiring youngsters to get running.

“It was great to cheer on the runners in the Isle of Man. I’m sure all of the children taking part had a fun day running with their friends and hopefully we have encouraged them to lead a more active and healthy lifestyle.”

Gianni Epifani, Senior Sport Development Officer at the National Sports Centre, said: “We’re delighted to be hosting a GO Run for Fun event in the Isle of Man once again. With so many local primary schools taking part, it’s been a great day.

“We hope that the event will give lots of young people the opportunity to represent their school at a fun sports event and inspire them to be more physically active in the future.”

The run comes after 6,000 children took part in a GO Run For Fun event alongside Olympians, TV celebrities and reality stars at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London last week.

The campaign has organised more than 170 events to date and has many more planned throughout the UK and Europe in the coming months. To date, it has encouraged more than 87,000 children to take part in its 1-2km fun runs, making it the biggest children’s running initiative in the world.

The GO Run For Fun series is the idea of Jim Ratcliffe, owner of INEOS, one of the UK’s largest manufacturing companies, who announced a ?1.5m donation to establish a new charitable foundation to encourage children to run for fun.

Jim Ratcliffe said: “I’m passionate about getting as many children running as possible as early as possible. The idea is simple – to get children out of the house having fun. It is not rocket science. Running is the basis of so many great sports. If our children can catch the running bug early, they’re more likely to stick to it, and this can only lead to them having more active and healthier lifestyles in the future.”

Moving more is an important part of tackling childhood obesity which is fast-becoming one of the leading areas of public health concern in the UK and the latest run in the Isle of Man comes hot on the heels of a new “Dart” cartoon series to help kids get fit and healthy.

Events like GO Run For Fun are a great way to get children to keep fit and enjoy sport with their friends, in a fun and relaxed environment.

For more information and to enter your child for INEOS GO Run For Fun events happening near you, or to register your local club or school’s interest in joining our campaign, please visit: www.gorunforfun.com.  

You can also visit the GO Run For Fun Facebook page, or find them on Twitter @_GRFF.

Photo - Jenny Meadows at the NSC.