Cumbria School Games Festival to be launched this summer (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Cumbria School Games Festival to be launched this summer

9:10am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in Sport

AN INUGURAL sporting festival offering thousands of school children a chance to compete in a range of heats is being launched this summer.

A committee made up of representatives from local schools, county sports partnerships, and national and local sports providers will arrange the Cumbria School Games County Festival.

Taking inspiration from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to help transform competitive sport in schools, it is hoped the event will become an annual occurrence and a lasting legacy of the Olympics.

David Keetly, chair of the Cumbria School Games Local Organising Committee (LOC) said: “Our main role is to arrange a high quality festival of sport in Cumbria.

"Our ambition is to make this an annual event which will inspire and motivate both competitors and volunteers, and will incorporate a wide range of sports and other skills from the arts and media in order to make the event as pupil-focussed as possible.

"This is not just a one-off event, linked to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; this is a culmination of competition that will be fully inclusive and involve pupils from primary, secondary, special and independent schools that will become an established feature of the Cumbrian sporting and cultural landscape in future years.”

The festival will involve children from all six districts in Cumbria with almost 1,500 young people from primary, secondary and special schools competing in 12 sports, including five inclusive sports at three Cumbria School Games events in 2012.

The largest of the three events will take place on June 27 in Carlisle, with two smaller events - the County Gymnastics Finals in Penrith on March 29 and the County Athletics Finals in Copeland on July 4.

The event will also be supported by more than 150 student volunteers, who will form the School Games crew helping run and promote the event.

Richard Johnston, Active Cumbria’s Partnership Manager said: “The Cumbria School Games will be based on successful foundation of Youth Games and Schoolympics events which have been held in Cumbria over the past 12 years.

“Active Cumbria, the Sport and Physical Activity Partnership have enjoyed planning such rewarding events and really looking forward to supporting the LOC to create an even bigger and better event in 2012, which is such a special year for sport.in the country.”

At least 60 county festivals are expected to take place across England in the first year and will involve more than 100,000 competitors and nearly 14,000 young volunteers.

* Information: to www.yourschoolgames.com