GB Women Help Sport Relief

Members of the Great Britain women’s hockey team rose to the challenge of supporting Sport Relief on Tuesday as they dribbled their way to the fastest mile with a hockey stick and ball in a time of four minutes and four seconds, smashing their target of Svetlana Masterkova’s one mile track record of four minutes 12 seconds.

The six participating squad members, Reading’s Laura Bartlett, Alex Danson and Emily Maguire and Leicester’s Crista Cullen, Hannah MacLeod and Kerry Williams - ‘dribbled’ the mile in a relay format in an exact time of four minutes, four seconds and 87 milliseconds.

The Sport Relief ‘Stick and Ball Mile’ took place during the squad’s training session at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre in Buckinghamshire and was filmed for the BBC’s South Today programme.

Cheered on by their watching Great Britain teammates, each member of the group ran one half of the pitch per shuttle before passing the ball on to the next athlete. In total they ran 17.6 lengths of the pitch.

Defender Crista Cullen explained afterwards why the squad had been so keen to take part: “We’re at a very exciting stage of our preparations ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in London and it is nice to be able to take part in Sport Relief to benefit the young people of this country and others around the world, many of whom will hopefully be inspired by the Olympics.”

Forward Alex Danson added, “It was great fun doing the Sport Relief Mile in our own unique way. We were ecstatic to break the world record but more importantly we are so happy we had the opportunity to do our small bit for such a great charity like Sports Relief. It shows how anyone can take part and have a lot of fun, but best of all, it doesn’t have to just involve running!”

You can rise to your challenge by entering the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile on 21 March. Just 60 miles north of Bisham Abbey NSC, Milton Keynes is playing host to one of the largest Sport Relief Miles in the UK, with other Miles happening all over the UK. To find and enter your nearest Mile visit Sportrelief.com