Cheltenhams challenge across the Atlantic

TWO Cheltenhams are on their marks for a unique fitness challenge across the Atlantic.

Leisure@cheltenham and Elkins Park gym in Cheltenham, USA, will open their doors on Monday for members to try to cross the Pond and reach each other first.

But they won't be getting their feet wet – they have to use one treadmill, a cross-trainer and a bike to clock up the 3,450 miles between the British and American twin towns.

Using the specially-programmed equipment, members will also improve their fitness in the virtual race.

Leisure@ commercial manager Stephen Petherick said: "This is a great opportunity to have a focused goal for training and to take part in a challenge with our partners in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania.

"We hope this will become an annual event and the good people of Cheltenham UK will step up to the plate and cross the Pond the quickest – all in the cause of building links and goodwill between our two comm- unities."

Mileage on the equipment will be notched up during both gyms' normal opening hours and conveyed to each club at the end of each week.

Progress will be marked on a map.

It's anticipated the challenge will take around five weeks, with the first club to reach its target recording the time and date to inform the other.

The winners will hold the Cheltenham Twinning Fitness Challenge Trophy.

The contest is set to strengthen an already close bond between the overseas sister towns.

Cheltenham USA residents sent a donation to Chelt- enham UK following the floods 2007, after seeing the devastation at the recreation centre.

In memory of this, a water feature is being installed at leisure@ to commemorate the Americans' kind- ness.

Cheltenham UK has been twinned with its namesake for more than 50 years and the two towns share a penchant for tree-lined streets.

The first recorded visit by the Mayor of Cheltenham UK was in 1950.

Cheltenham Township is in the county of Montgomery, in the state of Pennsylvania, north west of Philadelphia.

It has 35,000 residents and is made up of smaller districts, each with a central point of a shop or garage.

Cheltenham Township was settled in the 1680s by 15 English Quakers. Two of theme came from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and christened their new home after their old.