OLYMPIC athlete and Commonwealth gold medal winner and 41-year-old mum of two Jo Pavey was on a mission in Bridport today – to inspire young girls to get involved in sport.

And if the reaction of her huge audience at the Sir John Colfox School was any indication she’s helped to inspire the next generation of runners.

Jo is one of the top sportswomen signed up for the BT Sport-backed campaign Inspiring Women in Sport.

She said: “I am just really passionate about inspiring young women into sport because I feel so fortunate the life I have had out of sport and what it has done for me.

“Sport is so much more than competing, it is all the qualities it can give you – it boosts your self esteem, it gets you working as part of a team and gives you so many life qualities.

“I feel in a privileged position to be able to pass on that message and try and get young girls involved in sport. It is great to see so many more female role models coming through.

“It is great to encourage them not only to compete in sport but get into other sporting roles.”

She said although it was a great time for women in sport with so many positive role models not only among the athletes themselves but in other roles, in the media, physiotherapy and the like, there was always more to be done.

Bridport and Lyme Regis News:

She told her audience that although she was thrilled to win a gold – especially at 40 with her youngest only ten months old – it was the full life she’d led in sport and finding something she was passionate about doing that was more important to her.

She said it was a lesson motherhood had taught her – not to stress so much on whether or not she’d achieve her goals but to do the best she could and be happy doing it.

“And that If you want to achieve you just somehow will find a way.”

She did stress it was good to have goals but to enjoy all the experiences along the way.

Bridport and Lyme Regis News:

Runners Olivia Symes and Olivia Willmore with gold medal winner Jo Pavey

She told pupils they were lucky to have such a wonderful school and such a great PE teacher in Andy David.

Cross country runner Olivia Symes, 15, said she was very inspired by Jo’s visit. She said: “She never gave up.”

Year 8 pupil Olivia Willmore, who is running for the county at English Schools in two weeks, said:”Her message was it doesn’t matter what age you are you can still achieve.”

Rose Jones, 16, whose running has taken a back seat during her GCSEs, said: “I will start running again after GCSEs. She said she’s found a way around everything so it makes you realise there isn’t really excuses for anything, if you want to do it you can find a way.”

PE teacher Andy David said: “We are lucky because we do have a lot of girls who do sport here we have never had a major issue.

“But I think it is just maintaining it in the older years - Years 10 and 11 is particularly when girls drop out.

“The message I would try and get through is there is nothing worse for me than training girls through Years 7,8 to 9 then see them drop out.”

Bridport and Lyme Regis News:

Jo Pavey won the 10,000 m gold medal at the 2014 European Championships in Zürich, ten months after giving birth to her second child, to become the oldest womane European champion in history at the age of 40 years and 325 days.She is a four-time Olympian, having represented Great Britain in every Olympic Games from 2000 to 2012. She has her sights set Rio in 2016. She is also the 2012 European Championship silver medallist in the 10,000 m and a two-time 5000 m medallist at the Commonwealth Games, winning silver in Melbourne 2006 and bronze in Glasgow 2014. At global level, her best results include finishing fourth in the 10,000 m at the 2007 World Championships and fifth in the 5000 m at the 2004 Olympic Games.

Bridport and Lyme Regis News:

Flowers for Jo Pavey from Olivia Willmore

Jo Pavey donated her time to the Inspiring Women in Sport campaign. Backed by principal partner BT Sport, the Inspiring Women campaign aims to get 15,000 women to volunteer one hour of their time to talk to girls about careers in male dominated industries. For more information and to sign up please visit www.inspiringthefuture.org and follow #womeninsport.'