With the support of 105,000 participants, the goal of ‘80 Billion Steps Together’ was achieved in four months and 12 days.
Head of Active Community Strategy under the Health Promotion Centre, the ‘BN on the Move’ project manager and senior medical officer Dr Norhayati binti Haji Ahmad said this during a prize presentation ceremony yesterday for the ‘80 Billion Steps Together’ campaign under ‘BN on the Move’ initiative that concluded on December 31, 2023.
The ceremony, which also marked the official end to the campaign, was held at the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) Al-’Afiah Hall.
Dr Norhayati said, “BN on the Move was launched in August 2022 to promote physical activity among BruHealth app users.
“According to the ASEAN Sports Survey 2022, walking is one of the most popular physical activities in the Sultanate.
“Following the findings, the ministry introduced ‘One Billion Steps Together’ which received a very encouraging response.”
She said that to further encourage consistent activity, the challenge was raised to 20 billion steps until December 2022 and then 80 billion steps in August 2023.
Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar presented prizes to the top finishers.
Team Lovely emerged in first place under the community steps challenge category, followed by Team Seri Perwira in second place and Team Usaha Kitani in third.
Meanwhile, Ang Chee Ming (male category) and Dayangku Noor Amal Shahirah Hazerah (female category) achieved the highest number of steps for individuals.
For the MoH Corporate Challenge category, Team Admin and Finance finished on top with 49,857,470 steps. Team Dental Squad 14 claimed second place (44,829,172 steps) while third place went to Team Dent N Go (36,877,110 steps).
Team Scientific Services (35,158,997 steps) and Team Nursing RIPASH (29,291,798 steps) completed the top five.
For the individual MoH Corporate Challenge in the male category, Mohammad Zinih bin Haji Lamat took the first spot after he completed 4,064,717 steps.
Mohd Sofri bin Haji Musa (3,834,544 steps) took second place and Mohd Khairulanwar @ Mohd Rosli bin Haji Jamil (3,490,667 steps) in third place.
Meanwhile, in the female category, Siti Rahmah binti Abdul Razak claimed first place with 4,289,351 steps. Second place went to Amhra Nazirah binti Haji Mohd Hamdillah (3,732,486 steps) and Norlila binti Haji Japar (3,611,862 steps) came in third.
Siti Rahmah said she achieved four million steps through “jumping rope, jogging, brisk walking which started at 3am every day and then 10pm after work“.
She added, “I am quite a competitive person so I tried my best during the campaign.
“During the challenge, I did suffer from tiredness and leg cramps due to the lack of rest. I used ice on my legs, and sometimes the body, to recover faster.”
Siti Rahmah, who is a hiking enthusiast, also shared her advice: “Don’t give up. Keep trying. Make sure to get enough rest and don’t overdo it.” – James Kon
