Northamptonshire Youth Games
Saturday 3rd July saw a fantastic day of sporting activity for young people at the sixth annual youth games at Kettering Leisure Village. Northamptonshire Sport was delighted to see more young people than ever before participating in 10 sports. Athletics, badminton, basketball, boccia, cricket, football, hockey, netball, tag rugby and zone hockey.
The opening ceremony started with a parade of the teams with their mascots who would later compete in the 100 mascot dash! Kettering Borough Council were presented with a cheque for £ from Sport England for the development of the athletics track including refurbishment of the track itself and the long jump pit, and the addition of a permanent hammer cage. The Mayor of Kettering and other local dignitaries, then cut the ribbon of the track for the official opening this lead to a flying start by the mascots in their 100m dash which saw Bernie from the Saints, representing South Northants, victorious and making up for last years performance! Leo Lion, from England Hockey (Wellingborough) was second with the wooden spoon going to Lodgey the Lion (Corby).
Then all participants then took part in the mass aerobic warm up. With local press in attendance the counties young people showed them how its done with a little help from our local dignitaries and some tired mascots! Luckily the rain held off and the athletes moved off to their respective sporting venues in and around Kettering Leisure Village and Area, Kettering Cricket Club and Bishop Stopford School.
The rest of the day followed a hectic timetable of sport, all played in a great atmosphere with fair, fun competition, despite the odd monsoon! We hope everyone had a fantastic day- please see the results page to see how your district faired. The success of the day showed how positively everyone entered into the spirit of things!
Big thanks must be given to the hard work of all involved in making the Youth Games happen, including Sports Development Officers, coaches, volunteers, Active Sports programme, governing bodies, officials and NSport organisers. And to Nickys team of volunteers, who were mainly young people from Northamptonshire hockey, who worked very hard throughout the day. Of course not to forget all the young people that took part and parents that came along to cheers them on!
We hope you enjoyed the day and hope to see you again at The 2005 Northamptonshire Youth Games on Saturday 25th June 2004.