CANBERRA WIN AIMS/CHAMPIONCHIP AWARD FOR INNOVATION 2006 – The Canberra Kids Marathon encourages school age children to complete the 42.195km marathon distance over a number of weeks.

Australia’s Canberra Marathon initiative of utilising a weekly running programme in schools to encourage a healthy lifestyle in children has successfully claimed the inaugural World AIMS/ChampionChip* Award for Innovation in road running, securing a prize of US$10,000.

The Canberra Kids Marathon encourages school age children to complete the 42.195km marathon distance over a number of weeks. A basic program is to run 1km each day from Monday to Friday for eight weeks. This can be done in the child’s own time or as part of a school or sporting club programme. The innovative Australian programme defeated strong competition from the 235 races across 85 countries in AIMS (Association of International Marathons and Road Races) membership.

Cees Verhoef, Chief Executive of sponsors ChampionChip, proudly presented the award to Canberra Marathon organizer Fran Seton at the 16th World Congress of AIMS, recently held in Xiamen, China.

The programme, aimed to encourage a healthy lifestyle and social responsibility, is run in association with the Australian Institute of Sport and is part of a wider schools-based initiative, raising funds for the Children’s Cancer Institute of Australia. Those involved also establish ‘pen friends’ in USA as a result of close links with the Los Angeles Marathon.

The popularity of the initiative meant that record-breaking figures registered for this year’s event with 310 children representing a 38 per cent increase on numbers in 2006. The Canberra Marathon itself attracted over 1000 entrants and was held over the weekend of the 14th & 15th of April.

Co-Race director Fran Seton was delighted by the achievement and commented: ‘For Canberra to get this international recognition is fantastic. The event was successful in encouraging young people to participate in sport and promotes a healthy lifestyle. We are delighted that this recognition has raised the profile of the Canberra Marathon and Australian running as a whole.’

World President of AIMS Hiroaki Chosa commented: ‘AIMS in conjunction with ChampionChip is pleased to introduce the new Innovation Award. We are committed to recognizing the dedication and expertise of Race Directors and the service they provide throughout the world. Canberra is a worthy first winner.’

Chief Executive of sponsors ChampionChip, Cees Verhoef, remarked: ‘Innovation is what ChampionChip is all about. We want to encourage innovation within the sport and reward race directors for coming up with great ideas. It is an honour to present the inaugural AIMS ChampionChip Innovation Award to Canberra in recognition of their Kids Marathon programme. Hopefully this will encourage others to follow their excellent example.’

Marathons and road races wishing to win the next award should become AIMS (Association of International Marathons and Road Races) members by contacting Hugh Jones,
Secretary,
AIMS: Tel: +44 207 209 3193
e-mail: aimssec@aol.com

*The ChampionChip is a miniature transponder in a specially designed light packaging, marked with a unique identification number. It has revolutionised timing systems for sport with hundreds of thousands of runners around the world, running with the confidence of an accurately recorded time of their personal performance awaiting them at the end of their chosen race.

Peter McLean
Director of Public Relations
Association of International Marathons & Road Races