Inaugural Ballymena Sport Relief Mile a huge success

BALLYMENA held its first Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile event recently with close to 200 participants taking part in what was an enjoyable day at Ballymena Showgrounds.

With temperatures soaring, the event - co-organised between Ballymena United FC and Ballymena Runners AC - attracted a large number of entries on the day with everyone looking forward to an afternoon in the sun whilst raising money for a very worthwhile cause.

Ballymena United Community Relations Officer Iain Black commented, “Ballymena United and Ballymena Runners have been working very hard for this event for the past few months to make sure that the first Ballymena mile was a success”.

Everyone who took part completed the 1, 3 or 6 mile distance, with everyone receiving their coveted Sport Relief medal in front of rapturous applause from the gathered spectators.

Participants and observers alike were able to enjoy a buzzing atmosphere of music and banter from Davy ‘Kingo’ King, whilst the children, and some larger children, took part in some football activities with some of the Ballymena United players.

The total figure raised by the Ballymena Mile so far has not been totalled up by Sport Relief, as online sponsorship is still active for a number of weeks and donations can still be made online.

Iain said: “With this being our first attempt at such an event, we’re delighted with how it went and the feedback has been superb.

“We’ll be looking to go on and make this bigger and better next time. Sport Relief takes place every two years, but we’re already talking about having a charity fun run this time next year so watch this space.”

A final word comes from two of the participants, Iain Cameron and Richard Oliver.

“Having watched some of the TV show on the Friday night I realised how worthy a cause sport relief was.

“The Ballymena event was well organised and a good crowd turned up on a glorious day. My girlfriend and I ran 3 miles each and we really enjoyed the day. Hopefully this can be a regular occurrence,” said Iain.

Richard added: “I had a great day at the Sports Relief run - raised a decent amount of money for such a worth cause and finished 10 minutes ahead of Iain Cameron!”

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