LSR School games stages its first ever virtual championships
THE first ever Leicester-Shire and Rutland School Games Virtual Summer Championships was underway this week, supported by a range of professional sports teams and sports personalities.
Starting on Monday (June 22) the start of National School Sport Week and running throughout the week, young people will be able to take part in challenges and upload their scores at any time with Friday (June 26) being the culmination of the week.
There will be awards for Individuals, Schools & SSPANs, celebrating both the engagement of children, as well as performance, and will also highlight the School Games Values.
County sport stars including Leicester City star and England international James Maddison have pledged their support for the event along with a host of Team GB Olympians & Paralympians, including those that should have been heading out to Tokyo themselves this summer.
They are recording messages of support and taking part in the challenges to motivate and challenge the young people taking part in the event. These videos will be used to not only explain the challenges but give young people a chance to engage with and try to beat the professional.
LRS Sports Development Officer, Liam Drake who runs the County-wide school sport event said, “The last few weeks and months have been a really challenging time for everyone and with very few children being in school and not really allowed to play sport, we have had to think completely differently about how we deliver our County School Sport competitions, both in the short term and potentially moving forward into the future.
“This has meant looking at more individual and personal best type challenges and activities that can be completed with social distancing in mind.
“The School Games Summer Championships is a huge flagship event for us each year and there was no way we wanted to just let the date pass by without giving young people the opportunity to represent their school and district – for some of them, it might be the last opportunity they get before they move on to a new school.
“The week of our event is the annual National School Sport Week, so it was imperative that we gave schools and young people something to look forward to with the opportunity to take part and compete prior to the end of the academic year.”