Glenn Archer joins students going for gold!
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North Melbourne premiership player and Norm Smith medal winner, Glenn Archer, was at the Darebin International Sports Centre on April 16 to help launch the 500km Gold Medal Challenge.
The Gold Medal Challenge is almost a mini ‘Tour de France’ designed especially for secondary school students. Instead of competing against rivals, students are asked to test themselves – the only requirement to be successful is to ride 500 kilometres on their bike before December 12 this year.
The event was launched by North Melbourne premiership player and Gold Medal Challenge ambassador, Glenn Archer. Joining him at the Darebin International Sports Centre Velodrome were students from Euroa, Princes Hill and Preston Girls Secondary Colleges. “The Gold Medal Challenge is a great initiative and I’m very happy to be involved,” said Glenn, “As we know exercise is essential in living a healthy and happy lifestyle.”
“If kids kick-start their day riding their bikes to school, they will increase their fitness and it will give them more energy to concentrate all day on their school work,” he added.
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Cadel Evans, Australian Cyclist of the year in 2007, encourages students to take part in the Gold Medal challenge – and emphasises the benefits of riding to school. "Riding to school is a logical lifestyle choice. It’s healthy, relaxing, good for the environment, and it improves road skills altogether. In my case, riding to school also helped shape my career,” he said.
The event has been developed as part of Bicycle Victoria’s Ride2School program, and aims to encourage secondary school students to become more interested in their own health and fitness by becoming more actively involved in cycling. And each student who completes the challenge will receive their own gold medal, as well as going into the draw to win a new Malvern star bike!
Kayla, a year 11 student from Preston Girls, says that the benefits of the challenge are more what students are becoming interested in, “It’ll be great for students to get more exercise and get fit – and it’s saving the environment, with less petrol fumes going into the ozone.”
Students are more than ready to rise to the challenge with over 400 registering in the first month – a sure sign that teenagers are interested in getting off the couch, jumping on their bikes and putting themselves to the test.
The event is for both the social and athletic teenage rider, and while the student may not end up wearing the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, completing the Gold Medal Challenge will see every student a winner. As Glenn Archer said, “Reaching the goal of 500km and receiving a gold medal will give them a sense of pride that they have achieved something worthwhile.”
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