Press Release: Festival of Sport swimming event Inspires Coventry youngsters

Hundreds of children from across the city joined together to take part in the Coventry School Swimming Gala.Over 750 children from 32 primary and secondary schools descended on Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre, in Fairfax Street, to take part in the major amateur swimming event held as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership for the 2012 Games’ Festival of Sport.The gala was held to target children which were new to swimming and provide them with a fun swimming gala environment to encourage them to continue aquatic sports. The two-day event was the third instalment of the region’s Festival of Sport and was organised by the East and West Coventry School Sports Partnerships, and supported by the Coventry and Warwickshire 2012 Partnership,The London 2012 inspired Festival of Sport project, is a three year scheme funded by NHS Coventry, which aims to give children from schools across Coventry an opportunity to experience a variety of Olympic and Paralympic sports in the lead up to the 2012 Games.Neil Parker, partnership development manager for the East Coventry School Sports Partnership, said: “With 2012 approaching we have a fantastic opportunity to inspire and encourage youngsters to take up new sports such as swimming.“This event is about giving as many children from as many schools as possible the opportunity to swim in a gala environment and hopefully the children enjoyed it enough to encourage them to continue their interest in the sport.”In order to encourage future participation, all competitors were given an information pack about Olympic Aquatic sports and how they can participate in them locally.City of Coventry swimmer and 2012 Olympic hopeful Mark Branch was on hand to offer helpful advice and share his experiences of International competition at the European Youth Olympics, European Junior Championships and the Commonwealth Youth Games.The young swimmer also took part in a relay race against pupils from the participating schools.He said: “Events like these are important for promoting sport in general and for trying to encourage more youngsters to get involved in sport during the lead up to the 2012 Games.“When we look at Britain compared to other countries often we do not have a lot of talent to pick from but events like these can help us to spot talent that often goes unnoticed.“The two days have been great – there seems to have been a lot of team spirit from the schools and everyone has got involved.“It has been well organised and all the youngsters seemed to really enjoy it.”The West Coventry competition saw Stivichall Primary take home the primary school title, while Woodlands and Tile Hill Wood were named joint winners in the secondary school section.The East Coventry competition ended with Ravensdale Primary achieving victory in the primary school section, while Cardinal Wiseman celebrated winning the secondary school contest.

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