Sport and diversity celebrated at Youth Games

Reference: 

049/13

East Cambridgeshire Youth Games were a great success last week as hundreds of children joined together to compete under the banner of their adopted nation and for the pride of their school.

The competitors arrived at Littleport Leisure Centre representing countries from across the world and entered the sporting arena in procession carrying specially designed banners and dressed in their ‘nation’s’ colours.

The children, aged from seven to eleven years olds, came from schools from the north, south, east and west of the district to enter a whole range of activities including Quadkids (athletics), cricket, Quicksticks (hockey) and tennis.

As always the competition was very exciting with fantastic performances, personal bests and sportsmanship the hallmark of the event.

By the end of the day’s activities the winners were:

* Tennis and cricket - Ely St. Marys Primary School

* Quadkids Isleham Primary School

* Quicksticks Little Thetford Primary School

* Overall School Champions - Ely St Mary’s Junior School

These schools will now go on to represent the Witchford Partnership in the Sainsbury’s Level 3 School Games finals on Friday 28 June in St. Ives.

Cllr Richard Hobbs, Chairman of Community and Environment Services Committee at East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: "The East Cambridgeshire Youth Games was a fantastic event which brought together so many people across the district. As always there were some fantastic performances and I congratulate all the winners for their success. However for me, the best scenes were when the children laughed and played across school boundaries to show that sport is about bringing people together to get fit and have fun."

Di Baker, Partnership Manager for the Witchford Sports Partnership, said: "The day ran fantastically well with nearly 300 young people taking part. The sports leaders and Young Ambassadors from the local secondary schools ran the events to a very high standard and were a real credit to their schools. Finally I would like to thank everyone who took part, helped out and came to support what proved to be a great day for East Cambridgeshire and sport for young people."

For more information please visit www.eastcambs.gov.uk. To see photos and video clips of the day please visit www.witchfordssp.co.uk

The day was organised by East Cambridgeshire District Council and the Witchford School Sports Partnership and supported by Sports Leaders, Young Volunteers and National Governing Bodies of Sport.