FINALISTS in this year’s Miss York contest have taken part in a fitness challenge as they prepare for the final later this month.

Twenty-eight young women, who have been selected from more than 100 who originally entered, were invited to Roko gym at Clifton Moor to be put through a rigorous work-out in the hope of being chosen for the Roko Sportswoman Award.

Contest organiser Naomi Smith, herself a former winner and a Miss England runner-up, said Roko instructor Kieran Murphy led the women through circuit training on the grass outside and then on group team exercises.

“It was a chance for them to enjoy themselves and learn some work-out routines,” she said. “It was not supposed to be intensive but by the end they were all fairly tired!”

She said Kieran had selected the winner not on the basis that she was the highest achiever but that she had put the most into it.

The successful girl will not know of her triumph until the contest at the Royal York Hotel on Sunday, May 22, when she will discover she has been fast-tracked into the final 15.

Naomi said the session had replaced the traditional but outdated swimwear section of the contest. She has spoken out previously about how the face of Miss England was changing, and was no longer a stereotypical “beauty pageant”, where girls were paraded around in their underwear.

She said organisers were now looking for a girl who had personality and stood out, and the contest was more about finding a young woman to be a good role model for others, especially younger girls.

The eventual winner of Miss York will represent the area at the Miss England final in the summer.