A SPORTY duo will be bringing the Olympics to Abingdon by completing every event featured in the Tokyo Games to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Stuart Bates, a window cleaner, and Charlotte Nichols, a student doctor from Abingdon, will be completing all 80 events across the 17 days that coincide with the Tokyo games (July 23 – August 8 2021), to mark the 10-year anniversary of Mr Bates losing his brother, Spencer - known as Spenny - to motor neurone disease. They have branded this event ‘the Spennylympics’.
The ‘Spennylympics’ will include a marathon, a 240km cycle, a 10km swim plus 10m platform diving. The pair will also take on some more niche sports, such as Greco-Roman wrestling and synchronised swimming.
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These events will be completed across various UK locations, mainly in Oxfordshire, where they both live. They will also compete in Weymouth, where Mr Bates and his brother Spenny were raised, and London, where they have been given access to a host of facilities that were used in the London 2012 games.
They have recruited more than 50 former and current Olympians to act as ambassadors and mentors for their mammoth fundraising effort.
They are also receiving support from the local Abingdon School, who have offered access to all of their facilities for the duration of the event.
Local sports massage company, Sports Specific, have also offered their services, and will tend to Mr Bates and Ms Nichols aching limbs in preparation for the event and throughout the 17 day challenge.
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