Thousands of people attend the first Blue Mile event which took place in the waterside City of Plymouth over the weekend of the 3rd-4th July
BBC Presenter and Ocean Ambassador, Paul Rose took on the one mile open water challenge along with over 600 people who took to the water during the sunny weekend.
The combination of sport and environment proves to be a real success with the Blue Mile now set to become an annual race for the environment.
Over eight thousand people attended the inaugural Blue Mile – Race for the Environment, which started at the historical Mayflower steps, Plymouth’s most famous landmark. The event saw over 641 people take to the water to swim, paddle and walk for the environment during the weekend, including a host of celebrities and blue ambassadors, who are passionate advocates for the environment.
The day kicked off with the junior one mile swim in Plymouth’s outdoor Lido, where seven year old Charlie Hyland completed the mile in 59m:03:00s. The fastest junior swim was Matthew Rose (15) who set a remarkable time of 18m:03s:09 the fastest over the weekend. This was followed by the first swim wave of the day in the open sea, with Henry Tenby (68), our oldest finisher completing the course in 58m:14:00s.
A whole host of celebrities took part in the Blue Mile, with T4’s Matt & Darren (formerly Max and Ob from Channel 4’s flagship soap Hollyoaks) taking on the kayak challenge , BBC Presenter and renowned ocean ambassador, Paul Rose (swim); Everest climber and Pole to Pole explorer, James Hooper (swim), and Blue Bath 2 London adventurers, Dave Cornthwaite and Sarah Outen who tackled the Stand up Paddle (SUP).
The open water Blue Mile swim event was won by James Edmonds (24) who completed the mile course in a fast 20m: 24s, James also won the Blue³ Triple Challenge as the fasted across all three disciplines (Swim, SUP, Kayak) . The Corporate Blue Mile Team event was won by Wolferstans Solicitors.
This was the first Blue Mile event to take place in the UK, with the format of mixing mass participation on the water with an experiential and educational village designed to actively engage people with our marine environment. The Organiser’s of the Blue Mile, Sport Environment are now looking to take the concept further to create a world-class format that uses the power of sport to create social and environmental change.
Monica Dolan, Sponsored Events Manager WWF-UK, Official Charity Partner of The Blue Mile
“This fantastic event showed how much people enjoy our seas and care about protecting our blue environment. We are delighted that so many took to the water to swim, kayak or stand up paddle their own Blue Mile, and in doing so raised important funds for WWF’s conservation work. A big thank you to everyone who took part, and joined WWF in supporting our seas.”
Jane Chafer, Director of Marketing, University of Plymouth
“The Blue Mile was a fantastic event to be a part of, and a great promotion of Plymouth as a major marine and maritime city. We had a tremendous response from visitors to the Marine Institute stand, and people really engaged with the technology and equipment that was on show. I hope that the event can go from strength to strength and that we can go on to develop the educational aspects along with the aquatic sports participation.”
Conrad Humphrey’s, Managing Director of Sport Environment
“I was delighted at the public response to the first ever Blue Mile, an event designed to fuse sport with a public engagement programme focused on our blue environment. There were so many elements to the weekend that made me smile. This was not just an event for elite athletes; we had people from all walks of life who took on the challenge of completing a mile and raising valuable support for WWF-UK to continue their work for clean and healthy seas.”
The Blue Mile – Race for the Environment Full results can be found here: http://www.endurancelife.com/assets/results/2010_bluemile.htm
Tags: Dave Cornthraite, James Hooper, Matt Littler and Darren Jerreries, Paul Rose, Sarah Outen, The BLUE Mile, WWF-UK
