Two Stratford schools got the chance to rub shoulders with sporting royalty after doing their bit for the next crop of elite athletes by taking on the SportsAid #MyMiles challenge.

Students from Chobham Academy and Stepney Green Maths, Computing and Science College racked up their miles in every way possible as they were cheered on by sporting heroes including Olympic champion and local star Christine Ohuruogu.

Olympic silver medallist in diving Leon Taylor, Commonwealth gold medal-winning sprinter Reuben Arthur and marathon canoe world champion Anna Hemmings were also on hand to offer their support as part of SportsAid Week.

The charity raises funds for the stars of the future, helping young athletes get to competitions and pay for equipment, with the likes of Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and Sir Mo Farah among their alumni.

Martin Smith, head of PE at Stepney Green, has run a rowing and cycling club every lunch time for the last nine years at the school and revealed a chance to showcase Stepney Green’s hard work and represent SportsAid Week was a real honour.

“We’re really trying to engage with SportsAid and one of the particular extra things with done with the #MyMiles Challenge is getting everybody to row at least 1,500m or get on the bike for 1,500m,” he said.

“It’s really important for them to get into a challenge like that because students are increasingly spending time in classrooms or in front of computers so for them to get the opportunity to be recognised for the extra work they’re doing is really important.

“The challenge links quite well with a club that we run every lunch time. We have kids come in and use the rowing machines and bike machines and its really good fun.”

“We set up the lunch time club around nine years ago and it’s been a great success. Days like this really help us and help put out what we’re trying to do.”

Elsewhere, pupils from Chobham Academy used Queen Elizabeth Park to carry out their mile challenge before sitting down to listen to a Q&A with the sporting stars as they laid out their journey to the top.

PE teacher Emmanuel Okunja described the opportunity to welcome stars into their school as exciting and hopes to listen to the like of Ohuruogu can help inspire pupils to be more active.

He said: “I think this is a great opportunity for our kids to get involved in some charity events because we’re big on charity at Chobham Academy.

“The kids were a bit shocked at seeing some of the athletes down here, especially those they’ve seen on television.

“Ex-Olympians and current athletes who have just finished school as well. It also gives our students some new role models to look up to because having their involvement and talking about the pathways they’ve been through has been really inspiration.

“The balance between it all has been very beneficial.”

Ohuruogu added: “It was nice to be back in with schools and talking to young people and it’s not very often you have different sports stars come into schools and talk to you, so I think it was nice to give back in that way. I think we gave them some good things to think about.

“SportsAid week is important because it survives off funding and doing events like this and spreading the word of what SportsAid does and the athletes that benefit from the funding.”

SportsAid Week has returned in 2018. The initiative originally launched in 2016 to mark the charity’s 40th anniversary and generated over £40,000. SportsAid supports over 1,000 athletes each year by providing them with a financial award to help towards training and competition costs.