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It's a towering achievement
THE 2009 BLACKPOOL Youth Games promise to be bigger and better than ever.
Now in its seventh year, the five-day sporting extravaganza for the resort's schoolchildren gets under way on Monday and is packed with more events than ever before.
For the first time ever, every school in Blackpool will be involved in at least one event over the week – meaning that 39 primary schools, eight secondary schools and three special schools will be competing in the 35 events.
Matthew Craddock, senior sports coach for the Blackpool Schools Sports Partnership can't wait for next week to come round.
"We have lots of new events this year, so we have expanded the games for a further day to a whole week for the first time," said Craddock.
New to the games this year are events like cycling, volleyball and climbing.
There will also be a tri-golf event for primary schools, featuring plastic clubs in a fun version of the sport. Craddock is expecting close to 4,000 children to compete in the course of the week, divided into 269 primary school teams and 81 from secondary schools.
Among the evening events is a triathlon and a road race to raise money for the nationwide charity School Children for Children.
Craddock added: "The road race is voluntary and children who want to take part can donate a pound to the charity. It's nice to be able to dedicate the race to a worthy charity."
With the 2012 Olympic games in London on the horizon, this year's Youth games has an Olympic theme.
Each school has been assigned a country competing in the Olympics, with pupils and teachers researching cultural and sporting aspects of their country. Schools will show off their work during the games.
"It promises to be a really colourful games this year," Craddock added.
*Don't miss our traditional AllStars Youth Games special in two weeks' time.
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Weather for Blackpool
Thursday 24 May 2012
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Temperature: 14 C to 20 C
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