Thursday, 21 May 2009 Dame Mary Peters’ 70th birthday celebrations will get up and running with a special 10K road race.
The 10k run starts and finishes at the Mary Peters Track in south Belfast and is organised and promoted by Athletics Northern Ireland and supported by Sport Northern Ireland. Registration for both events is now open online at www.niathletics.org and Dame Mary has called on runners from all over the province, whatever their age, to rise to the challenge and help raise charity funds for her Trust, which was established to commemorate Mary’s gold medal win in the 1972 Munich Olympics and helps support talented young sportspeople. “It will be so uplifting to see people from all over the province turning up to run in support of the Trust and the event is, of course, especially meaningful for me because of my 70th birthday,” said Dame Mary. “It is my heart’s desire to keep sport foremost in minds and lives of our young people.
“We have so much talent in Northern Ireland that needs and deserves to be nurtured — so get out those running shoes, give the race a go and let’s raise lots of money for our young sporting stars of the future!” added Dame Mary.