Youngsters try sports to be seen at Beijing (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Youngsters try sports to be seen at Beijing

11:18am Saturday 9th August 2008 in Sport By Arran Jolly

To mark the onset of the Olympic Games in Beijing and the fact that the London 2012 Games is on the horizon, Kendal has been the venue for an Olympics style training camp for young people.

Kendal Judo Club's facilities have been designated by Sport England as an official Pre- Games Training Camp site for 2012.

So Mike Liptrot, the club's chief coach, with the support of South Lakeland District Council, organised the training camp for young athletes to try out some of the many sports seen at the Games.

He brought together some of the top coaches in the area - Sue Aitkin (swimming) Paul Coulfield (athletics), Mike Ray (fencing), Laura Clark (flexibility) Alan Willoughby (boxing) Mike Liptrot (judo and weight-lifting) and three-times Olympian Fitzroy Walker (wrestling) to teach the rudiments of their sports.

More than 30 children took part with the activities spread over the week and both participants and instructors said they had enjoyed the experience.

Mike is organising another such training camp during the October school half term. Full details will be on the website www.KOSC.co.uk