TOP athlete Todd Bennett lent a helping hand to a plucky bunch of Oxford schoolchildren in November 1987.

The 400-metre Olympic star helped the pupils at Bayswater Middle School on their sponsored run to boost British Olympic team funds.

Sports teacher Jane O'Brien said: "He had his photograph taken with all the 120 pupils who took part in the run, and he went out on the track to support some of them who started to flag on the three and three-quarter mile course."

Afterwards he was pictured with Steven Parsler, 10, Alison Blood, 10, Jane Ferguson, nine, Sylvia Neilson, 10, William Lepree, 11, and Jason Gardner, 10.

The school expected to raise nearly £1,000 from the run, which was divided between the Olympic fund and the school's sport equipment fund.

The event was organised as part of the Adopasport initiative, run by Weetabix.