Peaty and Marshall embark on 50 hours of sport

18 Aug 2017

A team of 12 British sporting athletes including Olympic Champion Adam Peaty and Coach Mel Marshall are taking part in fifty hours of sport over five days to raise money for a residential training facility at Kabwata.

Marshall, who is a patron for the Perfect Day Foundation, the charity who supports the initiative, will lead the group with the support of Peaty and his fellow athletes. The team line-up including; Anna Zair, Rob Day, James Lovatt, Ryan Lovatt, Abbie Clayton, Abbie Hymas, Katrina Gilbert, Mel Berry, Chris Tidy and Mollie Pearse.

The challenge will involve these individuals undertaking 10 hours of sport per day for five days at five different locations in Lusaka and the surrounding communities. They will be joined by 100's of young Zambians from four of the most deprived communities in Lusaka, where poverty, HIV, domestic and gender based violence, teenage pregnancy and homelessness are rife.

The five chosen sports are the main sports taught through Sport in Action’s peer leaders in local schools and are netball, basketball, football, triathlon and volleyball.

This coincides with the 12th year of the 'Volunteer Zambia' project, which sends out dozens of students from the seven universities each year to deliver coaching, build new sports facilities and undertake sports development capacity building programs across Zambia.

Marshall said: “On my previous visits to Zambia I have seen how valuable sport can be in enhancing the quality of life of young people who have next to nothing. I promised myself I would return every Olympic cycle and try to raise money to give them a chance to enjoy sport and learn valuable life skills.”

Peaty commented: “Four years ago we went out there and took on a 500km bike ride in 42 degrees. Some of the money we raised has helped build a sports facility and we will be starting our five day challenge this year from there, which is really exciting.”

Join Mel, Adam and team at the 50for50 challenge across various sites in Lusaka August 16th- 20th 2017.

To donate TEXT MELZ17 £10 to 70070