Sir Kevin Sinfield was joined by former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate along the first stage of his final running endurance event to raise money for motor neurone disease charities, with almost £500,000 pledged so far.
Inspired by former Leeds Rhinos team-mate Rob Burrow, who died in 2024 after living with MND for four and a half years, Sinfield and his team have raised more than £11 million for the MND community since his first annual challenge in 2020.
Sinfield is completing an ultra marathon every day for seven days in his '7 in 7: The Grand Finale' venture. Each ultra marathon is split into seven kilometre blocks, which must be completed within the hour before starting the next. There will also be an 'extra mile' event every day, when Sinfield joins members of the MND community in completing four laps of a running track.
Six charities are set to benefit once again from this year's fundraising – the MND Association, Leeds Hospitals Charity, My Name5 Doddie Foundation, Darby Rimmer Foundation, MND Scotland and the Irish MND Association.
The home grounds of the 12 English Betfred Super League clubs will be visited, before finishing on the pitch at Old Trafford ahead of the Super League Grand Final, where his son Jack will play for Wakefield against Warrington.
Sinfield set off on Sunday morning from Hull KR's Craven Park before heading across the city to the MKM Stadium, the home of Hull FC, and out to Market Weighton, with the first day's event finishing in Shiptonthorpe. Southgate also joined Sinfield's team during the run towards the finish.
When Sinfield had completed his first ultra marathon of the event, the fundraising tally had reached around £499,800, well on the way to the £777,777 target.