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Athletics leads increase in participation
More than 85,000 additional adults are taking part in athletics at least once a week as overall participation increased to 7 million, according to Sport England's quarterly update.
The first three months of Active People Survey 4, which covers a rolling 12-month period to January 2010, has revealed that 186,000 more adults are participating in sport, compared with 2007-08. Athletics participation has seen one of the largest increases since the publication of findings from Active People Survey 3 in October 2009, while the sport's participation numbers for the last 15 months is up by more than 200,000.
There has been a "strong increase" in participation among men aged between 35 and 54-years-old and among non-white adults, although figures for women and disabled participants have shown a decrease. Active People Survey 4 will run between October 2009-10 and results will be measured against an overall baseline of 6.815 million established in Active People Survey 2.
The surveys, which collect data from 192,000 people over the age of 16-years-old, are designed to measure Sport England's progress in seeking to increase participation by one million more adults by 2013.