Local people beat the weekend’s rain to join in the very first Test Valley Community Games and Sports Fair.
About 100 people took part in the fun run and then spent time with the local sports clubs to discover what they could do to keep fit all year round.
Linda Arnold from Valley Leisure, the event organisers who also run Andover Leisure Centre and Charlton Lakeside said;
The weather forecast wasn’t fantastic but we definitely got the best of the weekend’s weather and people took the opportunity to join in and discover more about the sports and fitness activities in the Test Valley.
It was fantastic to see people having fun and getting fit at the same time
In the 5k run, the winner was Harry Morgan from The Breeze in 18m 31s. In second place, not far behind, was Chris Hobson from Newbury and Alex Kane from Andover Rugby Club, who was third.
In the 2.5k race, first place went to Andrew Jones, second was Tanya Burk and third place was claimed by Edward Hornby.
Other activities included a tug-of-war competition, the Valley Leisure climbing wall and a flag design competition for children, which was won by nine-year-old Holly Hender from Andover.
Sports clubs on hand included Andover Rugby Club, the Charlton Lakes Golf Community, the Ruby Slippers Show School, Andover Table Tennis Club, Andover Lawn Tennis Club, Andover BMX Club, Marital Art World, Muddy Runners, Shooters and the Fighting Falcons School of Martial Arts.
The run was started by new North West Hampshire MP, Kit Malthouse and Test Valley Mayor, Iris Andersen was the VIP. Other local councilors also took part including Phil North and Tracey Preston.
Top Picture: Local MP Kit Malthouse gets the fun runs underway.
Picture 2: 5k fun run winners in podium positions (left to right) – 3rd place Alex Kane, overall winner Harry Morgan and 2nd place Chris Hobson.
Picture 3: One of the tug-of-war competitions in the community games
Picture 4: The people collecting at the start of the fun runs.
More information about Valley Leisure
Valley Leisure is an independent charity that helps get more people more active across the Test Valley. It does this by providing affordable health, wellbeing and leisure facilities, events and activities.
The company currently manages the Andover Leisure Centre, Romsey Rapids Sports Complex, Charlton Lakeside Pavilion, and Knightwood Leisure Centre, in partnership with Test Valley Borough Council.
It also has outreach programmes where it takes sports, fitness and wellbeing activities out to the community.
Valley Leisure keeps its prices as low as possible and aims to help get more people more active in the community. Any surpluses generated are reinvested into the facilities to make sure it continually evolves and broadens its exciting range of services.
In the last year, it reinvested over £300,000 in its activities and facilities.
Valley Leisure is one of the best-run leisure companies in the country. It was awarded an ‘excellence’
standard by Quest, the leisure industry’s accreditation scheme supported by Sport England.
It has also been awarded the Social Enterprise mark, which means it’s a company that brings benefits to people and the planet.
For more information see: www.valleyleisure.co.uk Twitter: @AndoverLeisure @therapids
Facebook: www.facebook.com/andoverleisurecentre or www.facebook.com/romseyrapids
[envira-gallery id=”9760″]