Chris Evans goes for gold at Lee Valley Athletics Centre
Date Published: 22/02/2010
Chris and Jonny with Denise Lewis
Britain’s favourite radio presenter was back in Lee Valley Regional Park on Wednesday as he took on his sports sidekick Jonny Saunders in a new twist on the modern pentathlon at the award-winning Lee Valley Athletics Centre.
The event was part of the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show’s current series of ‘Sporting Challenges’ and follows a recent game of Ice Hockey at the Lee Valley Ice Centre.
Chris and Jonny were coached by Denise Lewis OBE, gold medal winner in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, as they worked their way around the state of the art Centre in Edmonton, trying their hand at long jump, javelin, shot put, 100m and high jump.
It was a close competition with Chris winning the javelin and the 100m while Jonny was triumphant, taking home the gold medal after winning the long jump, shot put and the high jump. A video with all the action can be found here.
Lee Valley Athletics Centre was delighted to host Chris and his team. Centre Manager Mick Bond said “The Centre offers facilities and coaching for athletes of all levels, it was great to welcome Chris and Jonny and see the progress that they made over the course of the day, it proves it’s never too late to take up athletics.”
Commenting on his performance Chris Evans said “I felt as though we were progressing towards elite status like the elite athletes we were surrounded by at the Centre”.
The Lee Valley Athletics Centre is the largest indoor and outdoor athletics centre in London and the South East. The Centre is home to three of the four British track and field medallists at the Beijing Olympics and also used extensively by schools and clubs from across the UK.
The Pentathlon was the sixth in the breakfast show’s ‘Sporting Challenge’ feature – more information can be found here.