The fastest marathon runner in the world has become a global ambassador for The Daily Mile. Eliud Kipchoge, who won his fourth London Marathon this year, hopes to use his new position to inspire even more children across the world to get running and get fit for life. “A running world is a happy world,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Kenyan father-of-three visited a school in Oxford, UK, to run The Daily Mile with the children.
Afterwards, they had the opportunity to ask him questions around footwear, nutrition, sleep and Eliud's passion for running.
His visit to the John Henry Newman Academy, which has been running The Daily Mile since April 2018, came shortly after he had announced his INEOS-backed bid to become the first person to run a marathon in under two hours.
The Daily Mile, which Eliud supports, is a simple initiative founded in 2012 by a Scottish headteacher who was worried about her unfit pupils.
Today it is up and running in 65 countries, including America, which recently hired its first Daily Mile team member based in the INEOS O&P office in Houston, Texas. Currently, 122 American schools have signed up, but The Daily Mile Foundation is keen to recruit more and is working on other partnerships to help spread the word.
Back in the UK, 250 children from 35 primary schools, all sporting Daily Mile T-shirts, took part in the London Marathon’s Westminster Mile.
It was The Daily Mile’s third appearance in the race, which this year was started by founder Elaine Wyllie and athlete Mo Farah, who is also a Daily Mile ambassador.
Research has shown that children, who run or walk The Daily Mile, are not only fitter, leaner, healthier and happier, but they are also more eager to learn when they return to their desks.
Today about 1.8 million children from 8,600 schools all over the world now regularly run for 15 minutes every day – thanks, in part, to INEOS, which has helped to spread the word.
“We know how important it is to encourage children to get fit and healthy and look after themselves, not just for today but for the years to come,” said INEOS Chairman Jim Ratcliffe.