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Sport and fitness for today’s youth
February 2011 £2.75
£3m funding to motivate teenage girls By Louise Cordell THE largest-ever project to get disadvantaged young women involved in physical activity has been launched by StreetGames. Nearly £3m funding from Sport England will help provide opportunities for 30,000 women in 50 areas across the country. The Active Women scheme will also see over 200 events and festivals organised, 1,700 new coaches and volunteers recruited and over 1,200 qualifications gained by those taking part. Jane Ashworth, StreetGames chief executive, said: “This will be the largest-ever single project to engage with 16 to 19 year old women in disadvantaged areas. “All around the country there are groups of girls who would welcome the chance to play football or take part in dance exercise classes, but who don’t get that opportunity. “We will be coordinating this new offering in order to change this.” Examples of the opportunities on offer include sports taster sessions for women living on housing estates in Milton Keynes, where issues such as cost and transport prevent them from taking part in sport and 11 week boxfit
courses delivered at convenient times for women in Hammersmith and Fulham. Jane added: “The driver for choosing to target this group in these areas is that their engagement in physical activity is very low – around one in ten – so they need all the extra support they can get. We are focussing on all types of activity, not just sport, in order to keep our options open and attract as many young women as possible.” The two-year project will launch at the beginning of March with festivals in Manchester and Newham, providing women with the chance to try new things and to return to traditional sports. Jane added: “We hope that we will be able to share good practice and events throughout the country and that this will result in lots of learning and value for money. It is also important to remember that what this group really want from physical activity is very under researched – so we plan to ask them! This will help sports workers learn what to do to engage young women and we will also be working with universities to make sure the knowledge is passed onto the next generation of undergraduates.”
Diver Tom makes a splash to take title
Dance coach Andrew Gorski with two of the pupils from Our Lady of the Assumption Primary school who took part in the successful attempt.
It’s a world record FYLDE Coast school children have danced their way to success – smashing a world record with their coordinated moves. Hundreds of children packed into Blackpool Tower for the Guinness world record attempt to have the greatest number of backing dancers performing with a singer at a single venue. This attempt happened in the summer, but news has just come through that it has been verified a success by record officials. The record attempt was organised by Blackpool School Sports Partnership. Coach Andrew Gorski, who said: “We are thrilled to have the certificate to say we smashed the world record. The event was fantastic.”
TEENAGE diver Tom Daley has been awarded the BBC Young Sports Personality title for the third time. The 16-year-old became the second youngest ever double Commonwealth champion in Delhi, winning the 10m individual and synchro competitions. Daley beat Olympic champion Matt Mitcham to win the individual contest and took the synchronised title alongside diving partner Max Brick. The world champion also won the Young Personality crown in 2007 and 2009. Accepting his award, he said: “This comes very unexpected, I've got so many people to thank. It's been a tough year but to go to the Commonwealth Games as my main event of the year, I was very happy to come away with two gold medals so thank you very much.”