Housebuilder helps attract elite athletes to Medway Mile

Top athletes from across Kent were attracted to take part in this year’s Medway Mile thanks to support from housebuilder Bellway.

The annual race event took place at Medway Park in Gillingham on Friday 22 July and was attended by around 3,250 people from the local area and further afield.

To support the occasion, Bellway’s Kent division funded prize money for the first three finishers in the elite races in both the men’s and the women’s categories.

The housebuilder provided a total of £650 to Medway and Maidstone Athletic Club, which hosted the event this year. Bellway has been a major sponsor of the club since July 2019.

The Medway Mile was first held in 2007 as one of the countdown events in the lead up to the 2012 London Olympics.

It has since become a yearly fixture and one of the biggest sporting events in Medway. Thousands of people from all age groups take part in it every summer.

This year, the elite races were won by Jordan Chambers, who completed the mile in four minutes and 13 seconds to top the men’s category, and Annabel Carter, who finished the race in five minutes and 18 seconds to win the women’s event.

There were also several other fun races for children, parents, and mascots, including Bellway’s very own house mascot Bella.

Sarah Kenyon, Chairman of Medway and Maidstone Athletic Club, said: “Since the Mile was held at Medway Park, the home of our club, we were asked by Medway Council to get involved and host some officially licensed track mile races this year.

“We asked our sponsor, Bellway, if they would help to support the event and they kindly agreed. Thanks to their support, we were able to attract some high-calibre Kent athletes by offering prize money to the top three finishers of the elite men’s and women’s races.

“We would like to say a big thank you to Bellway for going the extra mile in presenting the winners with their cheques and adding to the fun for the community. It was also great to see Bellway’s mascot taking part in the mascot sprint track race.”

Mark Harrop, Sales Director for Bellway Kent, said: “Events like the Medway Mile are very important to the local community because they give people from various age groups an opportunity to come together in a fun and friendly environment while promoting the benefits of physical exercise.

“We aim to take an active approach in providing our residents with a sense of belonging in the neighbourhoods where we are building new homes. Supporting community events such as this is one way of helping to bring people closer together.

“As a regular supporter of Medway and Maidstone Athletic Club, we were more than happy to fund the prize money for this year’s Medway Mile to help attract some of the county’s best runners to participate and therefore raise the profile of the event even further.”

To find out more about the new homes that Bellway is building across Kent, visit https://www.bellway.co.uk/new-homes/kent.