WA walk makes Guinness World Record

5/2/07
Western Australia now holds the world record for the largest simultaneous walk.
Sport and Recreation Minister John Kobelke said the London office of Guinness World Records has declared the 100,915 Western Australians who stepped out at noon on 'be active wa day', Friday September 1 last year, set a new world record.
The 516 separate walk events held across the State on the day were part of WA's Giant Walk - Guinness World Record Challenge where the record for the most number of people walking simultaneously for at least one kilometre was made.
Mr Kobelke said the previous record of 79,815 was held by Alberta, Canada.
"To have more than 100,000 people walking in WA at the same time is a great achievement and earning the record just tops it off," he said.
"WA's Giant Walk was nearly four times the size of Perth's City to Surf event and was enjoyed by hundreds of communities around the State."
Walk events were held from the far north of WA to the South-West, through cities and in local shires and towns.
"Over 370 primary and secondary schools took part, as did local governments, workplaces, aged care facilities, community groups and prisons," the Minister said.
"Participants proved the weather need not be a barrier to physical activity with some walks held in the rain and between hail storms in the South-West."
Co-ordinated by the Premier's Physical Activity Taskforce, and financially supported by Healthway, WA's Giant Walk was aimed at raising awareness of the importance of physical activity, particularly walking, showing how fun and easy it was to be active.
Currently only half of Western Australian adults are physically active enough for good health.
Research by the taskforce also showed 60 per cent of men, 40 per cent of women and a quarter of WA children were overweight or obese, which was triple that of 20 years ago.
More information on WA's Giant Walk is at http://www.beactive.wa.gov.au
Minister's office - 9222 9211