Rugby League and fundraising legend Kevin Sinfield has revealed the route for the third day of his epic fundraising challenge which will take place in Belfast on Tuesday 3rd December.
Sinfield will run in memory of his friend Rob Burrow, who passed away from MND in June this year. Sinfield will also be remembering the late Charlie Bird, who he met during his 2023 challenge. This will be Sinfield’s fifth annual challenge for the MND community having raised nearly £10 million in the first four events. This year’s challenge has the tagline of ‘Running home for Christmas’ as the seventh day will end in Sinfield’s home area of Saddleworth.
Sinfield will be raising money for six MND charities including :MND Association in Northern Ireland and the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA).
The week long challenge will start on 1st December with Sinfield and the team covering over 50km per day, visiting seven regions across Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Each day will be broken down into 7km blocks, the number 7 as always central to Sinfield’s challenge in recognition of his friend and former team mate Rob Burrow, who wore the number during his glittering career alongside Sinfield at Leeds Rhinos. The team will aim to complete each 7km within one hour before the next block must start on the hour, meaning the only rest the team will get between each leg is the time spare after they have completed the block.
Sinfield will start at Kingspan Stadium, the home of Ulster Rugby, at 7am before running via Stormont, the Titanic Quarter and heading out north along Shore Road towards Fortwilliam Golf Club. Sinfield will then turn back towards Andersonstown and call at St Pauls GAA, where former Antrim Gaelic footballer captain Anto Finnegan played before he passed away from MND back in 2021. The challenge will finish at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park by the George Best statue around 1.30pm.
Last year, Sinfield ran an ultra marathon as part of his 2023 challenge in Dublin and was joined by legendary Irish broadcaster Charlie Bird for the final leg before the RTE reporter sadly passed away earlier this year following his own battle with MND.
The challenge will once again see the return of the Extra Mile events from last year’s 7 in 7 in 7 Challenge when members of the MND community joined Sinfield and the team to complete their own mile. On the Belfast leg, this will take place at Mary Peters athletics track at around 12.30pm and Mary Peters will be there to welcome Kevin.
Commenting on the start of his new challenge, Sinfield said, “We are very much looking forward to coming to Belfast. Last year in Dublin it was great to have former Ulster rugby players Tommy Bowe and Ian Madigan as part of our team and they both told us we had to come to Belfast this year because of the warm welcome we would receive. Our running top for the day reflects the colours of Ulster Rugby and St Pauls GAA and it is always special to come to a new city as we look spread the word about MND and show our support for those impacted by the disease. I would like to particularly thank Mary Peters for her support, she is an inspirational person and it will be lovely to see her at the track named in her honour.”
Members of the public can sponsor Sinfield by clicking on this link here: Kevin Sinfield Running Home for Christmas. For more details of the entire route for the 2024 challenge visit www.therhinos.co.uk/the-club/sinfield-christmas-2024
