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£30,000 raised by cyclists to build a Kenyan school

Hard-working cyclists hope to have set a new Guinness World Record for a static relay to reward their epic efforts to raise funds to build a secondary school in Africa.

Twenty-three teams and individual cyclists— including some shoppers from Arena Park – cycled 1km each in a static relay in the E.ON Lounge at the Ricoh Arena to help the Memusi Foundation build the only secondary school within a 200-mile radius of the southern Kenyan town of Magadi.

The present record for the most participants in a static cycling relay within 12 hours is 379, which was set by Konica Minolta Business Solutions (Hong Kong) Limited in Hong Kong last year.

A second challenge saw teams of six cycle through the pain barrier and the night in a 24-hour task to ride the equivalent of travelling to Kenya and back and the 12,236km goal was reached.

Angela Perkins, head of sales at the Ricoh Arena, said £30,000 of their £35,000 target had been raised which was tremendous news for the Memusi Foundation which supports communities who are working to escape poverty through education.

“It was amazing and we will find out in six weeks if we have officially set a Guinness World Record,” she said. “It takes time for the paperwork to be ratified but we are hopeful we have achieved our aim.

“The world record attempt went so fast during the morning because some people were cycling 1km in 43 seconds that we ran out of people.

“I went over to Arena Park and asked people who were doing their shopping to come over to the Ricoh Arena and cycle 1km which they did because many of them said it was on their bucket list to help achieve a world record. I am really grateful to them taking part.

“When we found the going really tough in the 24-hour challenge around 4am just as it was getting light, Bernie Hollywood OBE sang and played his ukulele to wake us all up.

“During the challenge, up-and-coming singer Joe Maddox sang songs from his new album and were also entertained by Phil Caffrey who is one half of band The Huers and two DJs – Kris Canarinho and the Ricoh Arena’s retail and logistics manager Alan Diaz who played upbeat tracks to ensure we kept going and a crew from The African Broadcast Network filmed the event.

“We had five spinning classes hosted by Vibe Cycle which everybody loved and I would like to thank Decathlon at Arena Park for supplying the Guinness World Record attempt bike and the Lifestyles Health Clubs of Coventry Sports Foundation for supplying the other bikes.

“The camaraderie was fantastic and I have had so many emails from those who took part saying they had enjoyed themselves.

“We were just £5,000 short of our fundraising target but the Memusi Foundation will still be able to build a secondary school and sustain it for two years which is simply fantastic.”

Matthew Norton, founder of the Memusi Foundation, said the 24-hours of cycling had been an absolute triumph.

He said: “What an amazing experience and achievement for so many people in what will be the first of many I hope. The venue, service and entire event was delivered with exceptional professionalism and I have only heard wonderful feedback. What lovely people surrounded us all at the Ricoh.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .