Rochdale’s young sporting stars compete at the Greater Manchester School Games

Rochdale’s young sporting stars compete at the Greater Manchester School Games

2,000 school pupils from across Greater Manchester gathered at The Regional Athletics Arena on Tuesday 19 March for the opening ceremony of the 2019 Greater Manchester’s Winter School Games.

Medallists from Rochdale were:

• Boccia Year 5/6; 1st - Rochdale Borough School Games Team (multiple schools)
• Boccia Year 7/8/9; 2nd - Kingsway Park
• Gymnastics Year 5/6 Key Steps; 2nd - Norden Community Primary School
• Handball Year 7/8 Boys; 1st - Middleton Technology School
• Hockey Year 5/6 Quicksticks; 2nd - Caldershaw Primary School
• Lacrosse Plate; 1st - St Gabriels RC Primary School

MC Paul Sleem delivered the Opening Ceremony with special guests including professional BMX rider Matti Hemmings, Olympian Kelly Massey and ‘Greater Manchester’s Got Talent’ competition winners, Greswell Primary School dance group.

The event was comprised of 22 competitions in 12 different sports across nine Greater Manchester venues. The sports which took place were sportshall athletics, basketball, boccia, dance, gymnastics, handball, hockey, lacrosse, rugby union, rugby league, swimming and table tennis.

The games welcomed athletes and former athletes to the event to inspire the young athletes. Former gymnastic world champion Beth Tweddle MBE attended the gymnastics competition, Hockey Under 21 athlete Liam Kennerley presented the medals at the hockey competition whilst the competitors and volunteers at the boccia competition had the opportunity to take part in a Taekwondo taster with four Great Britain Taekwondo athletes; Emelye O’Brien, Maddison Moore, Rebecca McGowan and Sam Cana.

This year saw the introduction of competitions to give children of differing abilities and confidence levels the opportunity to take part in the event and represent their school. The dance competition was the first of this type, whereby students scored their peers based on the demonstration of the School Games values. St Hugh of Lincoln Primary School from Trafford came away victorious after receiving the most points awarded on passion, honesty, respect, teamwork, determination and self-belief.

Over 120 young leaders came together to form the School Games crew this year, made up of students from schools across Greater Manchester, to support the delivery of the event. Responsibilities of the volunteers on the day included refereeing, officiating and team management.

The School Games organisers across Greater Manchester have delivered local competitions with 80,123 children having taken part in this academic year so far. Their winners then attended the Greater Manchester School Games to compete to become the Greater Manchester champions in their sport.

Sara Tomkins, CEO at GreaterSport, organisers of the Greater Manchester School Games said: “Today’s event has showcased the strong values that our young people hold. They demonstrated not only their sporting capabilities but the school games values of passion, honesty, respect, teamwork, determination and self-belief which all shone through in their performances. Congratulations to every young person that took part in today’s event, you have done yourselves and your schools proud!”

The Greater Manchester Summer School Games will take place on Friday 26 June where more young people from across Greater Manchester will come together to take part in 21 competitions in 15 different sports.

A full list of results can be found at:

• www.greatersport.co.uk/our-events/school-games/greater-manchester-school-games-2018-19/winter-games-2019