Olympians Larry Achike and Todd Bennett visited St Swithun’s Junior School to take part in a day to raise awareness and money for Sport Relief.
Larry, a triple jumper hoping to qualify for his third Olympics (he competed at Sydney and Beijing) and with a personal best of 17.30m, took an assembly for the entire school during which he demonstrated how to triple jump and the pupils helped to measure out his personal best jump, which stretched the length of the gym and out of the door. A question and answer session followed.
Each class took part in a 20 minute exercise class with Larry and Todd Bennett. Todd was a 400 metre runner who won silver in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as part of the 4 x 400m relay team
The main event of the day was a sport relief run for all the 130 children in years 1 to 6 accompanied by St Swithun’s Junior School staff. Larry Achike started the runners and even Todd Bennett could not resist taking part.
The pupils raised over £700 to be split between Sport Relief and a fund that supports young talented athletes.
Roger Marshall, Deputy Head of St Swithun’s who organised the day said “We were delighted to welcome Larry and Todd to St Swithun’s as part of our Sports Relief event. They were an inspiration to the children and staff alike and encouraged us all to see sport as an integral and important part of our lives.”