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Judo youngsters from Ilford
were treated to the most memorable sporting experience of their
lives as they performed a judo demonstration for British sporting
greats at Balfour Beatty’s London Youth Games Hall of Fame evening
at Lord’s Cricket Ground on 9 September.
Minister for Sport Hugh
Robertson, the 33 London Borough Mayors and some members of the
2012 Olympic Committee joined a host of sporting celebrities including
2009 Hall of Fame inductee and former Olympic, World and European
sprint Champion Linford Christie.
The 2010 instalment saw
Rio Ferdinand, Bradley Wiggins, Mo Farah, Tasher Danvers, David
Weir and Amanda Newton induced to the Hall of Fame while the star-studded
audience witnessed demonstrations of table tennis, fencing, rowing
and weightlifting.
The judo demonstration
only materialised on the day of the event which saw Heart of Oak
Judo Club’s Secretary Margaret James and the British Judo Association’s
London Development Manager Karen French pool their resources to
speak to the school’s, parents and arrange for the children to
participate in the event.
“Heart of Oak Judo Club
got involved when we received a call from Karen French at 10.00
am that morning asking if we could get any of our children along
to Lord's Cricket grounds by 4.00 pm to do a display of judo,”
said Margaret.
“Two important factors
here were that none of our members were old enough to participate
in the Youth Games this year and the majority have a few years
yet to go.
“At 10.00 am all the children
were already at school and the parents at work so we contacted
as many parents as we could to arrange for them to provide permission
for their children to leave school to attend the session.
“We then emailed the letter
that Karen had prepared - for the parents, giving details of the
event - to the schools.
A string of schools helped
ensure the participation of their pupils, as St. Aidan’s Catholic
Primary School, St. Winefrides Catholic and William Torbitt Primary
School all obliged in cooperating with a last-minute request from
the club.
“Without
the co-operation of the schools we wouldn’t have been able to
collect the children at all and we can’t thank them enough for
that.
“The children did a brilliant
demonstration and behaved beautifully. They enjoyed trying out
fencing and especially loved speaking to and receiving autographs
from the female weightlifters.”
Karen French said: “Despite
being handed this opportunity at late notice we managed to bring
the children together and stage a really well received demonstration.”
Heart of Oak Judo Club
train at Cardinal Heenan Centre, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1QP. Boys
and girls train on a Tuesday and Thursday at 18:00 – 20:00.
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