Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania Al Abdullah on Sunday patronised a ceremony to honour the fourth batch of students who won the King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness.

About 305,000 male and female students between the ages of 9 and 16 have competed for the award.

During a ceremony at Al Hussein Youth City, King Abdullah presented awards to first and second place winners, who had secured advanced positions in the appraisal stage.

He also presented gold medals and other prizes to about 2,900 winners.

Among the winners was Her Royal Highness Princess Iman Bint Abdullah II, who took fourth place for her age group, after participating with her peers for three years in a row.

The award, launched by the king four years ago, was a project of the Royal Health Awareness Society (RHAS), whose board is chaired by Queen Rania.

It was launched to encourage youth to become physically more active through sports and to make physical fitness an essential part of daily lifestyles.

Taking part in the award contest this year were 1,508 schools of the Ministry of Education, private and military schools as well as United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) schools.

During the award ceremony, which also included various sports displays by participants, Minister of Education Tayseer Al Nueimi, said the award had a great influence on students and parents as they become aware of the importance of fitness as a lifestyle.

Nueimi, chairman of the award's central committee, said the ministry and the RHAS were in a partnership to carry out the award project.