With the London Marathon postponed to later this year, the Weir Archer Academy hosted its own 2.6 challenge with nearly 50 people joining the various activities.

David Weir CBE who has completed 20 consecutive London Marathons started the morning off at 09.00 for a 15-mile push in the first stage of his Marathon challenge around the roads of Hastings and completed his first leg within 55 minutes.

David then joined all the Weir Archer Squad, friends, family and supporters on a Zoom call. He set off at 10.15 on the second stage an 11.2-mile push on rollers and was joined by the senior athletes to push with him for 45 minutes. Then at 10.30 the Juniors set off to complete the final stage of the challenge, a number of whom were expected to take part in the London Mini 3-mile Marathon for the first time.  David completed his marathon joined by the Weir Archer squad roared on by all of the supporters finishing together at 11.00. We managed to create our own great atmosphere in the absence of hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets of London.

It was great on the day to be joined by family members, supporters, sponsors & our charity trustees and we were delighted to have Michelle Weltman from London Marathon joining the live event via a zoom call.

The London Marathon is a huge event each year and plays a pivotal role for a lot of charities in their annual fundraising calendars therefore putting many charities at risk with the event being postponed. David decided we would try to do some fundraising and had set our sights on achieving £1,000 for our activities on the day. We were very conscious that everyone currently has a lot of added family pressures due to CV19 and that our fundraising coincided with other big initiatives for the NHS and the “big night in “a few days earlier.

The collective output from yesterday across WAA 26 athletes and 22 supporters resulted in 176 miles of pushing on the racing wheelchairs across the squad , 49 miles from cyclists supporters joining in on turbo trainers , 39 miles of running on road and back gardens , 13 miles on rowing machines , over 1,500 boxing punches ,over 600 dumbbell presses , skipping and climbing stairs.

Reflecting on yesterday and watching all the athletes at home, it has made us grateful for all the support we have had from many sponsors over the years. In particular yesterday would not have been possible without the support from Get Kids Going who for many years has helped support individuals to purchase their own racing chairs. In the last six months a real focus to provide training rollers across the whole academy has been achieved by the support from Tarmac and Invictus Active. This has enabled all our athletes to have access to home-based training during the CV19 lockdown and ensured they can keep training and join the regular sessions that are observed by coaches during the week. Many parents have commented on the importance and enjoyment the athletes receive from these activities as well as the well-being benefits from continued exercise and social interaction.

Our fundraising total is now over £ 4,000 which is incredible and a great credit to everyone who took part in yesterday’s challenge. Thanks to all our sponsors and generous donations from over 150 people who have enabled us to build on David and Jenny’s legacy by supporting the Weir Archer Academy.

Want to help, here is the link to the Virgin Money Giving 2.6 challenge fundraising page:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/displayCampaignsHomePage.action?charityId=1008381