Ammon News - AMMAN - Paralympic gold medalist Baroness Tanni Carys Davina Grey-Thompson on Wednesday visited the Umm Tufail School for Girls where she shared her experiences with students participating in the King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness.

“I am really impressed to see this huge number of students with high spirits,” she told The Jordan Times.

“It is really great to see physically challenged students sharing the experience with students who are participating in the award, which proves that this project focuses on all students and provides an excellent opportunity for students to know each other,” the baroness added.

The annual King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness has embarked on its fifth round with the participation of 500,000 students representing 3,000 government, private, military and UNRWA schools.

Organised by the Ministry of Education and the Royal Health Awareness Society, the award promotes physical fitness and healthy lifestyle choices among young Jordanians in order to combat the rising incidence of lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and hypertension as well as obesity.

The baroness, who is an international inspiration ambassador and patron of numerous charities including Sportsleaders UK, yesterday joined the Kingdom’s table tennis champions Maha Barghouthi and Khitam Abu Awad in addition to others training for the award.

Winner of 16 Paralympic medals, including 11 gold medals, the baroness discussed the Sports and Our Life 2012 project, which aims at establishing and developing youth leadership and encouraging the physically challenged to integrate into society.

“Sports is the key to responsible youths who can be leaders and lead the next generation of a healthy society,” the holder of over 30 world records and six-time winner of the London Marathon, noted.

The visit is part of a training course on leadership skills for award participants organised by the British Council, the Ministry of Education and the Royal Health Awareness Society.

Last year, some 273,000 students took part in the Royal initiative, which seeks to encourage young people to become more physically active and lead healthier lifestyles. Students participate in several programmes and activities including curl-ups, shuttle run, push-ups, sit and reach, and endurance run/walks.

***Paralympic gold medallist Baroness Tanni Carys Davina Grey-Thompson joins students participating in the King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness at the Umm Tufail School for Girls on Tuesday (Photo courtesy of the King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness


By Roufan Nahhas/ Jordan Times