Medal Rush for Knowsley
Over one hundred and fifty young people from Knowsley took part in the Summer Festival of the Sainsbury’s School Games in Merseyside Friday 5th July 2013 at Wavertree Sports Park, Liverpool. Sporting Champion Chris McDermott who made history at the London 2012 Olympic Games as a member of the first Team GB Handball squad was also at the event meeting and inspiring the young competitors.
Teams from All Saints, Alt Bridge, Bluebell Park, Halewood Academy, Huyton Arts and Sport Centre for Learning, Kirkby Sports College, Knowsley Park, Plantation, Park Brow, Ravenscroft, St Laurence’s, St Margaret Mary’s and St Edmund Arrowsmith competed against the five other boroughs of Merseyside in nine sports.
Knowsley Park, Halewood and Alt Bridge won gold in Girls Rugby and Quadkids respectively, with St Margaret Mary and Bluebell Park taking silvers in swimming and boccia. There were also bronze medals for plantation and St Laurence’s.
Assisting at the event were 100 young leaders with a range of volunteering roles on site including supporting event organisers at each sport, collecting scores, officiating etc and 19 media leaders were on site interviewing competitors. We also had on site the two winners of the Official School Games Photography Competition which took place at Level 1 and 2 events, inter and intra schools competitions. Alexandra from Year 4 and Alexandria from Year 3 of Stockbridge Village School were both chosen by an independent panel for their winning photographs.
Sainsbury’s School Games is a unique opportunity to motivate and inspire millions of young people across the country to take part in more competitive school sport. The Games are made up of four levels of activity: starting with competition in schools (intra-competitions) between schools within a local community (inter-competitions) and then progressing to Merseyside County Finals in both Winter and Summer sport Festivals. The fourth level is a high level national demonstration of school sport delivered by National Governing Bodies of Sport for those on talent pathways.