Black Country Youth Games 2005
Walsall competes in London 2012 Olympic style event
Over 300 young athletes from Walsall joined over 1200 other potential London 2012 stars from across the Black Country to compete for medals in a huge variety of sports from football to tennis at the tenth Black County Youth Games on the 15th and 16th July 2005 held at Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton.
This was a Sport England beacon event for the London 2012 Olympics, and in keeping with the “Olympic Spirit”, all of the participants at the Black Country championships took part in an opening ceremony parade of athletes, watched by many civic dignitaries and VIP’s.
Walsall’s Olympic swimmer Nick Gillingham dropped by and praised the talent of youngsters from Walsall. He said: “The athletes taking part could be the future athletes of London 2012, and the Black Country could support all in pursuit of excellence and for those who don’t, ensure they have the best opportunity to continue their participation in sport whether as players, coaches, officials or volunteers”.
Over 3000 young people have been involved in the Youth Games this year with over 50,000 hours of physical activity taking place through training and competing at the games.
Competitors aged from seven to 16 years taking part over the two days. Initially athletes had to earn the right to represent Walsall by competing in trials held in the months leading up to the games. Once squads for the various sports had been chosen, athletes had to complete six weeks of training in the build-up to the tournament.
Team Walsall competed in all but one of the twenty six events, and were victorious in a number of sports. These included mixed athletics, girls football, boys inclusive football for under 13s and under 15s, mixed hi-five netball; boys and girls hockey and girls cricket.
After some closely fought competitions Walsall narrowly missed out on the overall runners-up spot by only four points, and in the end came third, closely behind Dudley.
Participants from schools all over the borough enjoyed a great two days of competitive events showing promise for the future of sport within Walsall and the Black Country.