More than 100 schoolchildren from across Manchester will vie for mini-polo! honours before some of Europe’s top international sides take centre stage at the LEN European Nations Trophy at the Manchester Aquatics Centre tomorrow (13 July).
12 school teams from the region are to play in the Kellogg’s Swim Active Legacy Final, which has been coordinated with help from a team of teenage volunteers from the county’s specialist sports colleges.
Nine of the teams qualified from Regional Partnership Finals held at the Forum Leisure Centre in Wythenshawe and Miles Platting Pools while a further three teams, including one from a pupil referral unit, were invited from the local area. Each squad comprises 10 players aged between nine and 11 years old.
mini-polo! is a basic form of water polo which can be played by mixed teams of all abilities and can be adapted to different levels for different ages. Developed by the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) almost six years ago, the sport has gone from strength to strength in the North West where more than 1200 youngsters take part in community schemes each year.
The legacy tournament mirrors the LEN European Nations Trophy programme, with each team representing a country from the senior polo event. Schools have also been invited to prepare good luck cards to present to each of their teams on the day and many of them will visit the Aquatics Centre to watch their country in action.
More than 200 primary schoolchildren and up to 50 teenage volunteers have benefited from the legacy programme which was made possible thanks to funding from Kellogg’s.
Year 10 pupils from Barlowe High School, Our Lady’s Sports College and Wright Robinson Specialist College received training to help them deliver and officiate at the qualifying tournaments. Many of the pupils had never been involved in a polo event before.
Manchester Leisure Water Polo Development Officer Jemma Bury hopes this year’s event will be the first of an annual mini-polo tournament involving schoolchildren across the region.
“The Kellogg’s Swim Active legacy programme has been a great success and I’m really looking forward to welcoming everyone to the Aquatics Centre at the end of the week.
“Thanks to the funding from Kellogg’s we’ve been able to invite all primary schools from the region and interest has been high. We have already scheduled a tournament for 2008 where we hope to build on this year’s success.
“All the kids that have taken part have really enjoyed themselves and some of the schools in the finals are taking it very seriously, which is great. We’ve been running extra training at each school and some of the kids have been coming to open after pool sessions which we run each night across the region.”
Schools taking part in the tournament are as follows:
Moston Lane Primary School
Lily Lane Junior School
Moor Allerton School
Nicholas Varley Community School
Sandilands Junior School
Holy Trinity CE Primary School
Chapel Street Primary School, Levenshulme
St Catherines RC Primary School
St Marks Primary School
The Buzz
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The Kellogg’s Swim Active LEN European Nations Trophy Final runs from 12.30pm to 3pm on Friday 13 July at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.
The LEN European Nations Trophy takes place at the Manchester Aquatics Centre from 8-15 July 2007 and is jointly funded by British Swimming, UK Sport and Manchester City Council.
Day tickets cost as little as £5 per adult (£3 concessions) and can be purchased on the door.
For further details and full programme information, log onto www.manchester2007.com
For more information contact British Swimming media officer Amanda Overend on 07876 652 318 or email amanda.overend@swimming.org
British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain. It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales. (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association) British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
The LEN European Nations Trophy has been part funded by UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Events Programme, which aims to secure events of strategic importance that deliver a range of lasting benefits. These include economic, social and cultural benefits as well as improving sporting performance by home athletes, encouraging participation and leaving a legacy of facilities and development initiatives. Over 120 sporting events have been staged in the UK through the programme since 1997. More at www.uksport.gov.uk
The LEN European Nations Trophy is part of Manchester City Council's event programme. Media enquiries: Helena Davison, Manchester City Council Press Office 0161 234 3729. For the Council's full calendar of 'Events to listen out for…' the public should call Manchester Visitor Information Centre on 0871 222 8223*, visit www.manchesterlive.co.uk or text 'EVENT' to 60600 for FREE events text alerts/offers - direct to their mobile (subscribers can opt in or out at any time and details/Terms & Conditions can be found at www.eventext.com.
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