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Date: 15th June 2005

Wigan Borough's Young Stars Shine at GM Games

Young people from across Wigan and Leigh have yet again proven that the borough is a real hot-bed of sporting talent.

Following the success of Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust’s Sports Development Unit, who picked up three out of six awards at the Greater Manchester Sports Awards in March, the borough’s young sporting stars picked up six team gold medals at the Connexions Greater Manchester Youth Games, held at Bolton. More than four thousand youngsters represented Greater Manchester’s ten boroughs in 16 sports this weekend. With over three hundred young people in attendance, Wigan Borough had the largest number of competitors. All of the borough’s 340 competitors will be honoured at a celebration event being held at the JJB Stadium at 6.30pm on Wednesday 15th June.

Jane Bent, Sports Development Officer for Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust, is delighted at the results. “It’s a fantastic achievement for the young people of Wigan to be held in such esteem among their sporting peers from across Greater Manchester. For the Sports Development team the most important thing is the number of youngsters we had involved and the wide array of sports they competed in,” says Jane.

One of the most notable successes for the borough was the gold medal victory in new age curling. The outstanding performances of Anthony Burgoyne (Hope school), Zak Farghaly (Mere Oaks) and Danielle Dawoud (Mere Oaks) have resulted in them being asked to represent England in an upcoming friendly against Scotland.

The triumphant trio are all members of the Multi-Sports skills club run by WLCT’s Sports Development Officer Darren Birch. Darren is suitably proud of the team’s performance, “I am so pleased for the team, they’ve worked really hard and should be really proud of themselves. Their win is a great testament to the club.”

Wigan Borough’s team also won gold in the swimming pool and had success in the under-12s girls’ rugby union; the under-15s tennis; the under-13s boys’ rugby league and completely dominated the judo events winning thirteen individual gold medals to take the team gold.

Jane Bent is also keen to point out the vast improvements made by Wigan and Leigh’s youngsters in other sports. “Last year the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams finished last, but this year we have been running a club at Robin Park which has resulted in them finishing 5th and 7th respectively. We have also seen our netball club really club really take off this year and we want more and more young people from across the borough to join up to these clubs.”

Young people wishing to join any of the sports clubs ran by WLCT, should contact the Sports Development Unit on 01942 404982. For more information about the sports clubs and other activities please look at www.wlct.org/Sport/sportsdev.

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NOTES TO EDITORS: For further information on this News Release or to obtain photographs from the day’s events please contact Chris Dunbar, PR Consultant, WLCT on 01942 486937 or at c.dunbar@wlct.org

Further information on the GM Youth Games can be found at www.greatersport.co.uk

FULL RESULTS:
Aquathlon: Placed 2ndAthletics: Placed 7th
Basketball U13 Girls: Placed 7th
Basketball U13 Boys: Placed 5th
Cricket U13 Girls: Placed 5th
Cricket U15 Girls: Placed 6th
Girls’ Football U12: Mid-table
Girls’ Football U14: Mid-table
MLD Girls’ Football: Placed 3rdHockey U14 Boys: Placed 4th
Hockey U14 Girls: Placed 3rd
Hockey U12 Girls: Placed 4th
Judo: In total 13 gold, 17 silver, 15 Bronze
Netball U13: Placed 5th
Netball U15: Placed 6th
MLD Netball: Placed 2nd
New Age Curling: Placed 1st
Rugby League U13 Boys: Placed 1st
Rugby League U13 Girls: Placed 3rd
Rugby Union U12 Girls: Placed 1st
Rugby Union U14 Girls: Placed 2nd
Swimming: Placed 1st
Tennis U13: Placed 1st
Tennis U15: Placed 1st

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