The Hackney Moves Festival finally came back in September this year after a year out due to covid. Around 50 members of the BADU family ran the 5k or half marathon (some doing both!). The build up to the weekend was one which we are thankful for and happy to have been a part of. This year we decided to run the 5k and half marathon in remembrance of Michael Adu - one of our talented young football players who sadly passed away last year. For Hackney Moves 2021, our partner, Nike, set a community running challenge of 250,000km starting 26th August up until the 26th September. If we hit this target, Nike pledged to invest in our Centre of Excellence launching in 2022, where we will have a pitch named in Michael’s memory. This will be an accessible and affordable high level sporting facility based in Hackney Wick, for up and coming young talent to train and develop their skills throughout the year. We smashed our goal three weeks into the challenge and ended up over doubling our initial target. This goes to show the power of community and what happens when we come together as one.

Lastly, we were pleased to have our very own Mr Badu as the official race starter for the Half Marathon on Sunday.

We also hosted our very own 40m sprint track at Hackney Moves. Hosted by our excellent MC’s Joel and Jan, the track was a hit with young people and parents alike. We saw some great races across the two days and hope to see plenty more next year!

Lastly, we were pleased to have our very own Mr Badu as the official race starter for the Half Marathon on Sunday. It was a great way to start the day and a fantastic opportunity to connect with all of the runners in our community and give a huge shout out to the BADU family who ran on the day. We’d like to give a big thank you to Limelight Sports and Nike for making this happen.