A six-week fitness challenge undertaken by thousands of secondary school students nationwide resulted in girls boosting their fitness levels by an average of 16%.

The Irish Life Health School's Fitness Challenge aims to help secondary school students adopt a healthier lifestyle by becoming more physically active. Now in its sixth year, over 172,000 children have so far taken part, making this the third largest fitness study of its kind worldwide

Irish Life Health has just released results from the 2017 challenge, which involved over 30,000 students nationwide.

For the first time since it began, more girls than boys participated in the event and the results revealed that girls outperformed boys, with an average fitness improvement of 16%, compared to 6% in boys, over the six-week period.

According to Prof Niall Moyna, head of the School of Health and Human Performance in DCU, this boost in cardiorespiratory fitness is proven to significantly lower the risk of developing a number of chronic diseases, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Prof Moyna has overseen this challenge since it began six years ago, and he insists that ‘continuous surveillance of fitness in children should be mandatory' in both primary and secondary schools.

"The challenge results show if the right interventions are made, there can be a massive improvement to cardiorespiratory fitness levels in just six weeks. There is nothing more important to an individual than their health and the introduction of PE as an examinable subject this year is an important first step.

"However, there is still an urgent need for a stand-alone health science curriculum in schools, to teach young people health literacy and the reasons why long-term fitness is so important to their future health and in preventing them from developing chronic diseases in later life," he commented.

The results noted that while participation in the challenge is at an overall high, there is a big drop-off in numbers after Junior Cert, with the lowest participation among Leaving Cert students.

Commenting on this, recently retired Irish rugby player, Sophie Spence, acknowledged that children are under major pressure to juggle priorities in exam years.

"But as they progress towards Leaving Cert, there is actually never a better time to learn how to balance your health and work. If you learn how to fit exercise into your day when you are young, this will stand in your stead throughout your working life. Forming the habit of regular exercise at an early age is crucial to maintaining and improving your fitness levels throughout your life," she pointed out.

The winners of the 2017 Irish Life Health School's Fitness Challenge are:

Ireland's Fittest School:
-Mixed/Overall - Gort Community School, Co Galway
-Boys - St Macartan's College, Co Monaghan
-Girls - Mount Anville Secondary School, Co Dublin.

Ireland's Most Improved School:
-Mixed - Gort Community School, Co Galway
-Boys/Overall - St Macartan's College, Co Monaghan
-Girls - Loreto Secondary School, Co Wicklow.