A TOP athlete has urged east Durham residents to take part in the newly-launched Million Mile Challenge.

Susan Deacon, who competes for Great Britain and Scotland in the 100m and 200m sprint, issued her call while visiting Murton's Glebe Centre. The runner is hoping that residents from across the Easington district will accept their part of the challenge, which has been set by Sport England and involves covering 13,000 miles over a ten- week period from now until September.

These together with the miles clocked up by people from other parts of the country are set to achieve the national target of one million miles.

Ms Deacon said miles can be achieved by activities including walking, swimming or running.

Easington District is already off the starting blocks with a series of events organised by the council, Easington Primary Care Trust, the area's School Sports Co-ordinator Programme and Leisure Connections.

The initiative is part of the general Everyday Sport Campaign designed to encourage more people to build physical activity into their daily lives.

Each local authority has been set a target for residents to achieve based on populations.

Councillor Joe Goodwin, the council's executive member for community and culture, said: "Thirteen thousand miles sounds a lot but it only needs most of our residents to do a couple of miles of their chosen activity each week."