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St Helens’ Sutton Leisure
Centre hosted the North West Premier League 4 Sport judo festival
on Wednesday which saw six top-flight sides represented on the
mat.
The festival featured
82 children who have been introduced to the Olympic sport through
satellite judo clubs at Merseyside arch-rivals Liverpool and Everton
as well as Bolton, Manchester City, Blackburn, Stoke and Wigan.
The well-received event
was part of the award-winning and government funded Premier League
4 Sport programme which sees each top-flight side create four
satellite clubs which stage badminton, volleyball, table tennis
and judo.
Premier League 4 Sport
is funded through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
from the Premier League’s Good Causes fund.
Children have embraced
the programme across the country which has enabled inter-club
competitions to become a new and exciting fixture on the Premier
League club’s calendars.
The North West event
was organised by British Judo Association staff including former
British international and North West Technical Officer Kerry Finney,
her Yorkshire and Humberside counterpart Dermot Heslop and the
latter region’s Development Officer Jeff Hynds.
Ste Park, Liverpool’s
Community Sports Partnership Officer, was full of praise for the
North West bill.
“I thought the competition
was excellent, our players absolutely loved it,” he said.
“The parents were saying
that this was the best judo event they’d been to and how professional
it all was. One of them singled out Kerry Finney for her efforts
and there was a lot of praise for the event.
“I have to thank Kerry
and the British Judo team for organising such an enjoyable and
successful competition for the children.”
Daniel Griffin, British
Judo’s Children and Young People Manager, said: “We catered for
everyone at the event and we’ve had some very encouraging feedback.
“We’ve set a marker
for future events in the region and I have to thank the community
sports co-ordinators for their continued efforts and assistance
in making the day possible.”
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