Murray walks away with Top Athlete title

Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, asked its social media followers and staff to nominate the British athlete – past or present – they’d most like to go on a 20 minute walk with.

The top ten were then put out to over 2000 members of the public in a YouGov poll.

Of the respondents from Scotland who chose one of the ten athletes, Murray came out on top with 44 per cent, followed by Chris Hoy with 14 per cent, with Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis-Hill sharing third place with 10 per cent.

The top 10 British athletes these Scottish poll respondents would most like to go on a 20 minute walk with are: Andy Murray (44 per cent); Chris Hoy (14 per cent), = Jessica Ennis-Hill (10 per cent), = Mo Farah (10 per cent), Tom Daley (6 per cent), = Steve Redgrave (5 per cent), = Daley Thompson (5 per cent), Sally Gunnell (4 per cent), = Nicola Adams (2 per cent), = Dame Kelly Holmes (2 per cent).

For the GB-wide responses, Murray came second with 16 per cent with Jessica Ennis-Hill in first place.

Stuart Hay, director, Living Streets Scotland, said: “It’s fantastic to see Andy Murray walk away with the title. The responses were very close between each of the other athletes but Andy was a clear favourite amongst his fellow Scots.

“The poll was light-hearted but we wanted to get across the simple message that you don’t have to go to extreme measures to stay fit and healthy; just a 20 minute walk can provide noticeable physical and mental health benefits.”