Monaco, June 10, 2014: Jamaica’s 2011 World 100m champion Yohan Blake and USA’s 2000 Olympic 100m champion Maurice Greene are among the star athletes ‘past and present’ who will gather in the heart of New York City on Wednesday 11 June to support a demonstration of IAAF / Nestlé Kids’ Athletics.
Blake, the second fastest 100m runner of all-time, and Greene, who took three World titles at 100m and one at 200m and is the 6th fastest ever sprinter, will be in Herald Square on Broadway to help support the fun team event for school children of 9-10 years.
The kids, from local schools in New York, will be split into 6 teams and take part in a competition of about 70 minutes. This series of 7 fun activities (2 x jump; 2 x run; 2 x throw; 1 x endurance) cover the core skills of athletics, ‘run, jump, throw’.
Joining Blake and Greene as team captains will be fellow star athletes USA’s 2012 Olympic pole vault champion Jenn Suhr and Australia’s Sally Pearson*, the 2011 World and 2012 Olympic 100m hurdles champion.
Greek pole vaulter Ekaterini Stefanidi, who appropriately for this event is a former World Youth champion, and Jamaica’s World and Olympic sprint medallist Warren Weir are also captains.
Herald Square, located between 34th and 35th streets, one block from the Empire State Building, will be the setting for an afternoon of track and field street action.
Suhr will be especially busy as the afternoon’s proceedings begin with a women’s pole vault featuring the London 2012 Olympic Games champion. Approximately two hours later IAAF / Nestlé Kids’ Athletics will commence.
IAAF / Nestlé Kids’ Athletics demonstration is one of the lead-in promotions to the adidas Grand Prix, the sixth leg of the 2014 IAAF Diamond League which takes place on Saturday 14 June in Icahn Stadium, Randall’s Island, New York.
IAAF Kids’ Athletics | Nestlé Healthy Kids, the flagship development project of the IAAF’s School / Youth programme, is one of the biggest grassroots development programmes in the world of sports.
The International Olympic Committee highlights IAAF / Nestlé Kids Athletics as a case study example of good practice for other international federations.
Nestlé, which is the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company with 339,000 employees worldwide, became the main sponsor of Kids’ Athletics in January 2012 agreeing a five-year sponsorship with the IAAF.
The IAAF’s objectives for Kids’ Athletics, which has so far been activated in more than 130 of the IAAF’s 212 national Member Federations worldwide, are to make athletics the number one participation sport in schools, promoting a balanced and healthy lifestyle, and attracting the potential sports stars of tomorrow. —- IAAF
* has withdrawn from New York meeting due to injury
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