Jessica Ennis-Hill has been named as the British athlete people would most like to go on a walk with. Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, asked its social media followers and staff to nominate the British athlete – past or present – they’d most like to go on a 20 minute walk with. The top ten were then put out to over 2000 members of the public in a YouGov poll.
Of the respondents who chose one of the ten athletes, Jessica Ennis-Hill came out top with nearly a quarter of the votes (23 per cent), Andy Murray was second with 16 per cent and Mo Farah closely behind in third place with 11 per cent.
Top 10 British athletes these respondents would most like to go on a 20 minute walk with are:
- Jessica Ennis-Hill (23%)
- Andy Murray (16%)
- Mo Farah (11%)
- Steve Redgrave (10%)
- = Tom Daley (9%)
= Daley Thompson (9%)
- = Nicola Adams (6%)
= Dame Kelly Holmes (6%)
- Chris Hoy (5%)
- Sally Gunnell (4%)
Regional pride certainly seemed to play a part though as Andy Murray topped the poll for Scottish respondents with a massive 44 per cent and Sally Gunnell hurdled from a national average of 4 per cent to 15 per cent for respondents from the East of England.
Age played a part too with Tom Daley polling first for respondents aged 18 – 24 with 23 per cent, and Daley Thompson and Steve Redgrave proving more popular with the older age brackets.
However, nothing was moving Ennis-Hill, who was always in at least the Top 3 regardless of region or age bracket; and regularly took poll position.
The poll followed the ‘Try20’ campaign from Living Streets, which ran throughout National Walking Month in May. ‘Try20’ encouraged people to try and introduce 20 minutes of walking into their day and see what a big difference small steps made to their health and happiness. Thousands of people across the UK joined in and got active every day.
Joe Irvin, CEO, Living Streets, said:
“'What a great top ten of sporting heroes. There are lots of well-respected athletes in the UK who not only excel at their sport, but also do a tremendous job of encouraging us all to be more physically active.
“The poll was light-hearted but we wanted to get across the simple message that you don’t have to go to extreme measures to stay fit and healthy; just a 20 minute walk can provide noticeable physical and mental health benefits.“
