A GROUP of eight schools rose to the challenge of attracting more people from abroad to enter the 2013 Destination Basingstoke half-marathon.

The task was part of the Basingstoke Modern Foreign Language Challenge, based on the needs of local businesses and organised by Destination Basingstoke, which organises the half-marathon.

Year 10 students from the schools were asked to use their language skills and think up some creative marketing materials such as a radio jingle and press release for foreign news media, working in French, German or Spanish.

The challenge’s event was held at the Civic Offices in Basingstoke and was opened by The Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane, Councillor Martin Biermann. Language judges were provided by BCoT and Queen Mary’s College.

The teams had to work to strict deadlines and their final task was to make a presentation to convince runners from other countries to come to Basingstoke.

Leon Cooke, a student from Cranbourne Business and Enterprise College, Basingstoke, said: “I liked trying something new and practising my linguistic skills outside the classroom.”

Seren West, a student from Testbourne Community School, added: “It was a new experience for us all. The day has been a massive confidence boost.”

For the second consecutive year, the overall winner was the German team from The Costello School, in Basingstoke, comprising Matthew Hampsey, Samier Shahir, Emily White and Annie Wood.

The runners-up were The Clere School (French), in Burghclere, and Bishop Challoner Catholic Secondary School (Spanish), in Basingstoke.

Presenting the cup to the Costello team, Nina Muir, project development manager at Destin-ation Basingstoke, said: “It was great to see these school children being so enthusiastic about learning languages.

“They had obviously put in a lot of time and effort to the challenge and it was especially nice to see our event being marketed so well!”