Mount Anville Girls’ School is the fittest in the country

A SOUTHSIDE school has been declared Ireland’s Fittest Girls’ School.

Thomas Barr, 2016 Athlete of the Year and camogie star, Ashling Thompson, recently presented the girls of Mount Anville Secondary School with the award as part of their 2016 Schools Fitness Challenge.

Irish Life Health recently staged an awards ceremony in Croke Park where the other 2016 winning schools, hailing from Monaghan and Kerry, were awarded.

Matthew O’Leary from Bunclody Vocational College, Wexford and Louise O’Dowd from Presentation Secondary School, Miltown, Kerry were awarded overall fittest boy and girl in the programme.

But it was the Southside girls who were praised as the overall winners.

 “Congratulations Mount Anville Secondary School, Dublin on your win,” stated Jim Dowdall, Managing Director at Irish Life Health.

“The Irish Life Health Schools Fitness Challenge is a national health initiative designed to assess and improve fitness levels among Irish secondary students with the aim of improving overall health.

“We are extremely proud of this challenge as we are all aware of the relationship between participation in sport and its impact on a child’s current and future health.

“The importance of initiatives that help teenagers improve their fitness and health is clear and we congratulate all the schools that participated in the challenge.”

The challenge results also revealed that Irish girls are less likely than boys to meet the minimum current physical activity recommendations for optimal health.

By 4th year, boys are 42 per cent fitter than girls, as opposed to 1st year boys being 32 per cent fitter than girls.