Offaly Sports Partnership last week announced the winning schools in its Fit Class Challenge for 2018. The announcement comes after a six week programme of fitness challenges in 41 primary schools across the county. Up to 5,000 pupils took part.
Launched at Easter with the endorsement of Offaly Olympians James Nolan, Gordon Kennedy and Pauline Curley, the fit class challenge is a remote competition between schools to determine which class has the fastest average speed and also the ability to sustain speed over 1 minute. Testing undertaken by the Sports Partnership and the South Offaly Sports Hub in Crinkle, found that the average top speed of primary school children was 17.5 km/h for girls in first class and 21.8 km/h in sixth while for boys it was 18.2 km/h in first and 22.3 km/h in sixth. Usain Bolt on the other hand reached a top speed of over 44.7 km/h when he set the world record for 100m in 2009.
Explaining the concept behind the Fit Class Challenge, Sports Partnership Coordinator, Eamonn Henry emphasised that the objective is to improve fitness by all children over the next five years. “Every child in a class contributes to that class’s overall average score; it is not a case of a class picking a select few to represent them”. By setting it up as a friendly competition between schools Mr. Henry believes that average fitness scores will improve in the coming years. “By 2023 this year’s first class children should be getting better scores before they leave primary school than this year’s sixth class pupils”. He feels that a 5% improvement over 5 years is a realistic target.
Inter school fitness competitions were held from first to sixth class across three categories; small size classes, medium size classes and large size classes. The 36 category winners were:
Small size classes, girls
Small size classes, boys
Medium size classes, girls
Medium size classes, boys
Large size classes, girls
Large size classes, boys
Presentations were made to all winning classes prior to the summer break
ENDS
For further information please contact Eamonn Henry, Coordinator Offaly Sports Partnership on 086 – 7948054 or by email