3,000 take part in virtual school games
STARS MOTIVATE YOUNGSTERS TO COMPETE IN CHALLENGES
MORE than 3,000 young people took part in the first LeicesterShire and Rutland School Games Virtual Summer Championships.
The event kicked off at the start of National School Sport Week, with youngsters from 123 schools taking part in a series of challenges and uploading their scores.
There were more than 15,000 entries in the four sports categories and the championships were supported by a range of sports teams and sports personalities from across the county and beyond.
Leicester City and England midfielder James Maddison pledged his support for the event along with Team GB Olympians and Paralympians, including those that should have been heading out to Tokyo this summer.
They recorded messages of support and took part in the challenges to motivate and encourage the young people taking part.
These videos were used to not only explain the challenges but give young people a chance to engage with and try to beat the professional.
Vicki Brown, from Ab Kettleby Primary School, in Melton, said: “The children really enjoyed taking part in the different challenges and representing Team Melton and Belvoir.
“It was nice also to see the children from our school featuring on East Midlands Today.”
LRS Sports development officer, Liam Drake, who runs the countywide school sport offer, said: “Our School Games Virtual Summer Championships was a huge success that exceeded the aims and expectations that we had in terms of the engagement of young people across the county.
“We would like to put on record our huge thanks to everyone involved schools, pupils, staff and parents and all of the sports people, athletes and famous faces that took the time to record good luck massages and film themselves doing some of the challenges.
“As well as being a fantastic event, the Virtual Summer Championships has confirmed to us that there is an appetite for virtual school sport events and competitions, not only in the short term whilst we go through the current situation, but also beyond that which will hopefully allow us to make these events more sustainable and engage with even more young people, particularly those who don’t necessarily get or take the opportunity to represent their school in ‘traditional’ school sports competitions.”