Huercal-Overa walk challenge exceeds target

HUNDREDS took part in the ‘Walking for a Challenge’ staged in Huercal-Overa on Tuesday to raise awareness about fighting obesity and the importance of exercise as a key part of a healthy lifestyle.
In all 1,386 pupils aged six and upwards from the municipality’s six schools, plus teachers, parents, family members and council representatives did the five-kilometre route. Leading the way were Huercal-Overa Mayor Francisca Lourdes Fernandez, Deputy Mayor and Education councillor Maria del Mar Meca and Youth and Sport councilllor Alejandro Campos.
The great turnout meant the walkers exceeded the target they set themselves of collectively covering 5,000 kilometres, the distance from Huercal-Overa to Lapland. In fact, the distance the walkers covered added up to 6,390 kilometres.
The local authority’s Youth and Sport department organised the municipal “Caminando por un Reto” in order to be part of an annual initiative created in 2016 by the council in Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol as a way of addressing obesity, being overweight and sedentary lifestyles through taking up sport and acquiring healthy habits.
At 10.30am participants here in Spain and elsewhere in the world all walked five kilometres. The global challenge was to together cover the 384,400 kilometres, the distance between Earth and the moon.
Each organising entity selected a specific target distance to aim for in relation to its participants, the idea being that adding together the kilometres covered by each they arrive at their chosen city or location.
As part of the Diputacion de Almeria’s ‘Almeria School Sport Fair Play’ initiative, Huercal-Overa’s walkers was contributing to covering the 7,170.08 kilometres to the NASA space station in Cape Canaveral in Florida.
At the end of the walk in Huercal-Overa the Mayor congratulated everyone who had joined in and “for having exceeded the goal”
Fernandez also took the opportunity to encourage local people to make “physical activity and sport a constant in your daily lives so you can enjoy a healthy lifestyle and be aware of the threat of a sedentary lifestyle to our health.”