22,500 Slippery Rides to Find South Island Winners

14 December 2006

22,500 Slippery Rides to Find South Island Winners

Dunedin and Christchurch students named the "Top Kids" in the South Island

The Anchor Mega Milk Top Kids series completed its last event in Dunedin on December 12. Since it's first event in Nelson on November 22, 4,500 enthusiastic South Island school children have been sliding, jumping, pulling, pushing and grinning their way through the physical challenges created to get them up and active. By all accounts, it has worked!

In the Intermediate Grade: Dunedin's Balmacewen School (504 points) came ahead of Queenstown's Mt Aspiring School (473 points) to become "Intermediate Top Kids Team 2006".

In the Primary Grade: Christchurch's South New Brighton School held its lead to become "Primary Top Kids Team 2006" with 344 points. Nelson's St Paul's School was a close second with 341 points.

"Feedback from teachers, coaches and parents conveyed what was written all over the children's faces – that this has been the best fun we've all had in a long time," says event organizer Chris Simpson, of Strategic Sports, who hopes to roll out the event to include North Island schools in 2007.

Some statistics collected during the course of the Anchor Mega Milk Top Kids series include:

22,500 bottoms slid down the giant inflatable slides in total 6,000 Anchor Mega Milk bottles were drunk 575 Nelson students competed during the best weather of the series 265 Greymouth students struggled with the worst weather on the tour 700 Timaru students were known for being the best behaved 980 Christchurch students made the most of poor weather conditions 450 Invercargill students (not including the Primary division that was cancelled due to bad weather) kept the crowds amused with their rowdy supporters who made t-shirts especially for the event 715 Queenstown students competed in the most scenic conditions 815 Dunedin students ended the series in brilliant sunshine Around 40 firemen made sure the games were kept alive with plenty of water in buckets

"No child left empty handed," said Chris Earl, Anchor brand manager. "We wanted the series to be about community spirit and involvement rather than about the end result and we gave each child an Anchor Mega Milk Top Kids pack for competing." This included certificates, frisbees, hats, tattoos and Anchor Mega Milk products. Medals were also awarded for bronze, silver and gold placements with "Champions 2006" t-shirts adorning the backs of the gold-award winning teams in each region.

South Island children scored a whopping 91,287 points over the course of the whole event and are now looking forward to competing for an overall New Zealand winning title in 2007 against North Island schools.

For more information go to www.megamilktopkids.co.nz

ENDS

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