News Archive

About 400 UWA stompers trekked around the world eight times from May to September – and lost a total of 198kg in the process.

Actually, most of them probably just walked around campus and their neighbourhood. But because they were in the Global Corporate Challenge (GCC), checking into the website every day to register their steps, they undertook a virtual tour of some of the world’s most exciting destinations.

GCC organiser and UWA Health and Wellbeing Officer Sarina Radici said UWA participants, who walked in teams of seven, had achieved a 12,753 daily step average and walked a total of 330,605km.

“UWA ranked as the fourth most active university in Australia out of 25 participating in this year’s GCC,” Sarina said.

“Evaluation of the Challenge showed participants not only increased their physical activity and lost weight, they also reported reduced stress levels and a greater sense of connection to colleagues and to the University.

“Congratulations to Pedago2go who took out the title of Most Active UWA Team with a daily step average of 19,587 steps and were rewarded with a $100 voucher for the University Club café.

Congratulations also to Marius Porojan who took out the UWA Most Improved Individual prize, winning a $50 café voucher.

“Thank you to the University for subsidising entry fees as an incentive, to the University Club who have supported the Challenge for many years, and to UWA Sports for putting on a range of events.”

For anyone thinking about taking part in next year’s GCC, here’s some good advice from Jean Michel le Floch of the Big Bang Movers:

“What we did in our team was to encourage all team-mates to walk an extra 200m a day every week. We went from a 12,800 to 17,800 step average. We organised early morning walks in Kings Park and along the river, played table tennis and fencing and met over the weekends as well. It has helped a lot to change our lifestyles. Four out of our seven team members have now joined the UWA Sports gym to motivate us to keep moving.”

Published in UWA News , 15 October 2012