SIX community champions have been honoured by a royal command to run in the round Britain curtain-raiser to Manchester's Commonwealth Games.

Marathon man Steve Redford, David Potter and Tracey North, of Leigh, John Shepherd, of Atherton, Rebecca Tarry, of Astley, and Darrell Lawton, of Hindley, have been selected from thousands of applicants to carry the Queen's Jubilee Baton.

Message

Carrying a message from the monarch calling competitors to the Games, the baton starts a 50 day tour of the UK on June 6 after completing a 63,000 mile relay around 22 Commonwealth countries.

It will be borne by 5,000 runners, 2,500 of them stars in their own right including ex-international athletes such as Brendan Foster and Tessa Sanderson and former world superbike champ Carl Fogarty.

Steve, 53 on Saturday, and the Leigh area team, will run their 500 yard leg of the event "as near to home as possible" on day 48.

For Steve, of Lightburne Avenue, the distance will be no problem. He completed 37 marathons up to the age of 40, and is renowned as the first man to complete a twin towers run from Paris to Blackpool in 1989.

He completed a marathon a day for 15 days and raised £35,000 for Polio Plus to help eradicate the disease in the third world.

He was entered as a candidate for the royal relay by wife, Kathleen, who in the 80 word testimony required for selection told of his charity work and the award of the Rotary Club's top honour, the Paul Harris Fellowship.

The Dunlop works manager and former Huyton RL star, Steve said: "I am delighted to have been chosen from the thousands of entries by the Duke of Edinburgh Award judges. For me the distance is hardly worth putting my running shoes on for, but I am very honoured to be representing the Leigh community.

Invitation

"I was shocked when the invitation dropped through the door. The Eiffel Tower to Blackpool Tower run seems an age away now, but I still jog around to keep myself in order. The money raised was to help wipe out polio in poor countries and it has worked.

"I'm looking forward to playing my small part in the XVII th Commonwealth Games which open on July 25."

Families of the other five named runners should contact Lesley Richards via the Journal newsdesk on 01942 672241.