AS THE Olympics approach, young readers are racing for the finish line in an Oxford school readathon.

Inspired by the 2012 games, the pupils at St Michael’s School in Marston are picking up books in a bid to “travel” the globe in a competition launched with their own Olympic torch relay.

Children will have to read 300 pages to travel between 10 host cities which held the Olympics between 1948 and 2012.

The cities were chosen by the children and displayed around the school on 10 colourful boards.

As they reach each destination they collect stamps for their reading ‘passports’.

The race was kicked off with the entire school turning out for its own Olympic torch relay on the school field which saw each pupil run with the Olympic symbol before passing it on to another child.

Tobi Stevens, 11, from Marston, is ready to start racing through the pages of The Sheep Pig by Dick King Smith and Jacqueline Wilson novels.

She said: “It went really well.

“I’m going to start reading lots and lots now.

“I think it’s good because it will encourage children to read more books and I think mums and dads will be inspired to read more books as well.”

Her fellow Year Six pupil Petrina Chantler, 11, from Marston, said: “I think people are getting really excited about the Olympics – I’m going to read several books.

“At the moment I’m reading Do Not Read This Book: Finch’s Top Secrets.

“It’s really good – it’s sort of about a person who is my age and that helps.”