Hill climb enthusiasm rewarded

Wednesday morning athletic endeavours from Marlborough’s Special Olympians have been recognised for their week-in, week-out efforts.

The jog challenge was set back at the start of 2024 where coach Bob Tate challenged the Special Olympic athletes to jog nonstop for 30 minutes at Athletic Park on Wednesday morning at 6.45am.  “I was totally amazed that even through winter, when there was frost on the ground, the athletes still got picked up by me and carried on training. 

“We moved to the Wither Hills because some athletes jogged for the full 30 minutes, some at 10 and others at 5, and I didn’t have enough watches and memory space to keep up.”

The challenge morphed into jogging to the Witches’ Hat nonstop where athletes try and jog further than they did the previous week.

Footage on the Special Olympics Marlborough social media site alerted Grant Bennett from Marlborough Roads to their efforts. He was so impressed by the group’s efforts he personally decided to fund medals for their participation and was on hand to present them individually last week.

“We’re hoping to attract more athletes to join and show people what awesome individuals these athletes are,” added Bob.