Running into the record books

History was made in the 2026 Education Minister’s Running Challenge with two secondary schools sharing top spot for the first time and one student claiming a historic back-to-back win.

All winners were celebrated at a presentation event on Monday.

Kalamunda Secondary Education Support Centre shared the title of top overall secondary school with Aranmore Catholic College.

Oberthur Primary School’s Riley Martin also made history as the challenge’s first back-to-back winner, taking out the overall primary student title for the second consecutive year.

Held during the first nine weeks of Term 2, students and staff from 306 schools across WA participated in this year’s challenge by logging running, walking, cycling, scooting or wheelchair activities.

Students and staff logged 45,415 activities adding up to an incredible total of 1,886,976 minutes. That’s about 3.5 years of activity collectively.

Nearly 1,000 participants who completed the challenge received codes that gave them free entry to the Perth Running Festival’s Burswood Park 4km Dash, which took place on Sunday 11 October and allowed students a rare opportunity to cross the finish line inside Optus Stadium.

"We loved being a part of the Education Minister's Running Challenge for 2026, as the challenge is inclusive and achievable for everyone!" said Karina Meldrum, principal at Winthrop Primary School, who took out the best overall primary school category.

"Thank you to the organisers and sponsors for providing the students with such a great challenge.

"We are excited for 2027"

Student winners:

• Overall primary school: Riley Martin – Oberthur Primary School
• Overall secondary school: Lilly Tysoe – Piara Waters Senior High School
• Cycling/scooting primary school: Dharshini Baskar Kalpana – Riva Primary School
• Cycling/scooting secondary school: Varshini Janarthanam – Kelmscott Senior High School
• Mobility primary school: Minnie Koleva – Geographe Education Support Centre
• Mobility secondary school: Hannah Narkle – College Row School

School winners:

• Overall primary - Winthrop Primary School
• Overall secondary (joint winners) - Aranmore Catholic College & Kalamunda Secondary Education Support Centre