Carlisle are crowned Cumbria SCHOOLympics Champions!

5th July 2010

Carlisle were crowned Cumbria SCHOOLympics Champions as overall winners of the county wide event last Thursday in Penrith. As the sun was determined to shine, 1,000 young people from school year 3 upwards competed in a fun pack day of sport.

The competition element of the day got underway as soon as the rainbow of team colours started to pack out Penrith Leisure centre hall for the Opening Ceremony. It was certain from the offset that all the young competitors were ready to represent their areas from the array of chants echoing across the hall. As Eddie Edge of Cumbria Sport Partnership tried to contain the excitement fo the young people he managed to introduce the invited guests for the day which included representatives from all of Cumbria's local authorities, Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust.

The primary and inclusive events started early morning with the teams dispersing to 6 different venues across Penrith, accompanied by 120 Young Sports Leaders.

Year 5 & 6 Orienteering teams went out to Hackthorpe Village Hall and enjoyed their day on the Lowther Estates.

Roger Jackson from Cumbria Schools Orienteering Association said:

"We had a great orienteering event at Hackthorpe. The weather stayed fine in the end and allowed the two races to proceed without a problem. We were working to a very tight schedule but managed to stay on time, and to produce a clear set of results.The group of 'Sports Leaders' who volunteered to help worked brilliantly and we had a very complex event totally under control thanks to their total attention to detail. With a full set of twelve runners per District the local Sports Officers did a great job. "

The Mini Tennis competitors went out to Penrith tennis Club to compete in a small schools competition and a large schools competition from years 3 & 4.

Joanna Cunliffe from the Lawn Tennis Association said:

"The year 3 and 4 tennis competitors were fantastic. The competitions ran brilliantly and this was down to the efforts of everyone involved. The volunteers from St Benedict's School in Whitehaven were superb and a real credit to themselves, their school and Copeland. They have a bright future shown by the commitment, dedication and all round helpfulness that they have shown! Well done to the winning teams. It was an absolute bonus when I heard a teacher say they were going to take their players to their local club to keep them playing tennis."

Netball & Multi skills competitions ran at Ullswater Community College. Tri Golf at Frenchfields. Kwick Cricket at Penrith Cricket Club. Penrith Leisure Centre played host to Quicksticks Hockey, Swimming, Athletics, Boccia, Football, Table Tennis and Wheelchair Basketball.

The Inclusive Event doubled up as the County Athlete Assessment Day (CAAD) for our young disabled people who were identified as having sporting potential.

As the results started to come in and the teams started to arrive back at Penrith Leisure Centre the excitement and atmosphere started to heat up. The Closing Ceremony started with Chris McDonald from the Cumberland Building Society, the main sponsor for the event:

"We are proud to have been part of Cumbria's first SCHOOLypmics. It was fantastic to see so many young people involved from all over the county. This was their Olympics and it was great to see the enthusiasm on children's faces as they were competing and the pride when they picked up their medals."

Also at the Closing Ceremony, Craig Heap, Olympic Gymnast and the first person to captain England Gymnastics to team Gold, really enthused the young people when he spoke about the power of sport. However, the highlight was the mass dance off led by two girls from Furness who took to the stage and got the crowd to follow them in the Macarena and YMCA. The invited guests were no exception to this.

It was then down to business and applause all round as all the winning teams for each sport were invited to the stage.

RESULTS

It was them down to Cllr David Weedall, Chairman of the Cumbria Playing Fields Association to hand over the overall winners trophy, and as Eddie Edge of Cumbria Sport Partnership announced  'Carlisle are the champions of Cumbria 2010 SCHOOLympics' the team roared in shear delight! Mayor of Carlisle Cllr Mary Styth and Lesley Minervini, representing the Carlisle School Sports Partnership collected the brand new trophy kindly donated by Cumbria Playing Fields Association. The atmosphere was electric, and celebrating got under way. The Mayor along with the Carlisle team took to the stage as Queen's 'We are the champions' blasted through the music system.

Mayor of Carlisle, Cllr Mary Styth, said:

"This was a marvellous event, well-organised and credit to all participants and organisers alike. They all put in a huge amount of effort and showed some real grit and determination to succeed. It was a double joy to have received the cup on behalf of the pupils from Carlisle, who were overall winners. Well done to all concerned."

Eddie Edge of Cumbria Sport Partnership said:

"The atmosphere was fantastic, a true celebration of sport for young people in a safe and fun environment with the CARLISLE School Sports Partnership area coming out on top winning the overall event trophy. The Mayor of Carlisle Cllr Mary Styth was 'over the moon' and celebrated with the Carlisle team all around her.
 
The smiles on the childrens faces all day, the fantastic support and excellent comments from the invited guests which included representatives from all of the local authorities, Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust showed why it is important to stage this event for young people leading up to 2012.
 
We could not have staged this without the fantastic sponsorship of £10,000 recieved from the Cumberland Building Society and our sincere thanks go to them."

Stacey Mullock, Development Manager from Youth Sport Trust said:

"Cumbria SCHOOLympics was a huge success!  It was great to see so many young people taking part with big smiles on their faces and it was very clear that an awful lot of hard work had gone into both today and the events leading up to it. It's so nice to see in practice what we all work so hard to achieve."