Students take on the 1-Mile Challenge during the celebration of Kids Athletics Day hosted by the Northern Marinas Athletics.
NORTHERN Marianas Athletics has launched the World Mile Challenge in the CNMI with a “Kids Athletic Day,” which has attracted many individuals and groups, including Run Saipan.
“Fifty-one Run Saipan members have signed up — that’s nearly all the membership this year,” said Run Saipan President Edward Dela Cruz Jr.
So far, 119 total runners are currently registered and taking on the challenge, which started on May 1 and ends on May 19.
“We have runners of the CNMI that are living abroad whether in college, have relocated or are serving in the military,” Dela Cruz said. “We got participants from Korea, Arizona, North Carolina, Florida, California, and hopefully in more states when they respond to my call.”
He added, “The current run milage we have registered is 1,109.”
Not everyone has submitted their milage though, and most are waiting until May 19 to submit theirs, he said.
“As the only road running club on island, we are taking the lead with Northern Marianas Athletics to get as many participants and milage as possible to meet World Athletics’ goal to celebrate Kids Athletics Day and get more people to go out and move whether it’s running, jogging or walking.”
People can register at https://shorturl.at/dpM26
Then, they can log their miles on a Google form that will be verified later: https://shorturl.at/fjA39
The minimum is one mile, but participants can log in as many as they can until May 19.
Targeted miles
This year, the target is 2,000 miles per organization in each area or member federation of World Athletics.
“We want to shatter those numbers and go above and beyond,” Dela Cruz said. “The challenge [is to] unify everyone around the world through the sport of athletics by recognizing and celebrating kids’ athletics. Kids are our future.”
He added, “One of the incentives that World Athletics and Oceania Athletics have put out is the member federation with the best outcome of celebrating Kids Athletics Day will be awarded $10,000 for their hard work. This will be a good incentive if Northern Marianas Athletics gets the award, and it will go straight back to our kids’ athletics specifically all schools for next year and after.”
World Mile Challenge is held in honor of the 70th anniversary of Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile on May 6, 1954.
