2003 Youth Games
Saturday 28th June saw a fantastic day of sporting activity for young people at the fifth annual youth games at Kettering Leisure Village. Northamptonshire Sport was delighted to see more young people than ever before participating in a wide variety of sports competition from football, cricket and basketball to table tennis, badminton and boccia.
The youth games kicked off in blazing sunshine with the opening ceremony. As well as 800 + young people a selection of local VIPs and dignitaries cheered on our counties mascots in their 100m dash. Mascots from Northampton Saints Rugby, Kettering Poppies Football, Santa Pod raceway, Rockingham Speedway, Northamptonshire Sport, Lodgy the Lion and the local hockey clubs raced for the coveted 1st place. Congratulation goes to Rocky from the Poppies who stormed ahead to victory!
After opening welcomes from Margaret Talbot, Chief Exec of CCPR and Neil Adams, Olympic Judo champion, the children participated in a mass aerobic warm up. With local TV, radio and newspapers in attendance the counties young people showed them how its done with a little help from our local dignitaries and mascots!
The rest of the day followed a hectic timetable of sport, all played in a great atmosphere with fair, fun competition. We hope everyone had a fantastic day- we received hundreds of thanks from young people with messages for their coaches, check back soon to view some of these messages online! 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. Of course not to forget all the young people that took part and parents that came along to cheers them on!
A final thanks to our sponsors Warburtons, we hope you enjoyed the day and hope to see you again next year.