Crowds cheer as Twickenham hosts first Ecover Blue Mile

The sun shone and Twickenham’s riverside came alive for this year’s opening Ecover Blue Mile event which was formally opened by river paddling legend, Dave Cornthwaite on World Oceans Day.  An estimated 3000 people joined the participants on the stunning riverside to watch the kayakers and stand up paddle boarders go head-to-head on the River Thames.

Participants enjoyed a full day of paddleboard and kayak races before tackling the Ecover Blue Mile main challenge.  The live music rocked to the sound of an occasional splash as some of the participants took a wobble and fell off their paddleboards into the river.

The event concluded with a small group of pro-riders going head-to-head in the Xtra Blue Mile stand up paddle race. With the river tide now running at quite a rate, the five paddlers battled hard upstream to make it around the challenging two mile course.

Clare Allman, UK Marketing Manager, Ecover said “A great event to start the Grassroots Ecover Blue Mile events. We hope that this will inspire many more people to take part either in their own event or at The Flagship Ecover Blue Mile event in Plymouth on the 8th-9th September.”

Claire Bunning, New Business Development Manager at WWF-UK said: “Our mascot ‘panda’ and the WWF team loved cheering on all the participants, meeting all the spectators, having a go at kayaking and dancing to the music at this fabulous event.   We hope that many people will now be inspired to organise their own Ecover Blue Mile fundraising event; so invite you to download the fantastic online fundraising pack, get in touch with WWF and raise valuable funds to support our work to protect the world’s water”.

Alex Tobutt, Naish UK said “It was great to see so many newcomers getting on a paddleboard for the very first time and congratulations to those that made it around the one mile course. We at Naish UK are very keen to be able to promote the stand up paddleboarding at the Blue Mile which encourages people to get involved and keep active. You could see it on the participants faces, they were simply having fun!”

Charlie Webster, Sky Sports Presenter and founder of the “Running For a Life” project said “We were thrilled to be able take part in the Ecover Blue Mile as part of our 48 hour challenge. Stand up paddleboarding was a very unique challenge for the whole team who overcame their fears to really enjoy the experience.”

The Ecover Blue Mile is an exciting outdoor event designed to get us actively caring for our rivers, oceans, lakes and wetlands. This summer we are urging community groups and sports groups all across the UK to organise their own Ecover Blue Mile event, in return for sponsorship from family and friends. Last year over 2,000 people took part, and this year we’re asking even more people to take part. Protecting our rivers and oceans is now more important than ever. Oceans provide a home to half the species on Earth and help regulate the global climate

Final Results: