Enfield raises the Paralympic flag

At last week’s Paralympic flag handover, more than 60 young disabled and talented athletes arrived at Lee Valley’s athletics centre to show off their skills and try entirely new sports to mark the handover of the Paralympic flag to London as the Olympic and Paralympic city.

Young people from Enfield’s successful disability team at the recent London youth games came with their schools to try the activities on offer.

Football, table tennis, boccia and judo were some of the many sports, which were all arranged by the Enfield sports development team.

These 30-minute sessions gave the athletes a chance to try whatever sport they would like. They also got to watch some wheelchair racing around the track before the games started.

David Hutton a local Enfield boy, who now plays as a Tottenham Hotspur reserve and Republic of Ireland under-19s international supported the event.

He said, “This ceremony highlights the Paralympics handover and the role the people in Enfield will play in what we hope will be the best Paralympics on record. Our British Paralympians did a tremendous job in Beijing and having spent time with some of the young athletes here today I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of the same in London in a few years time.”

During the event the Paralympic flag was handed over, and later taken to the Civic Centre, where the mayor, Cllr Lee Chamberlain and councillors from the Olympic and Paralympic Working Group raised it on the balcony from the mayor’s parlour.

Cllr Jon Kaye cabinet member for leisure, culture and Olympics, said, “Our talented youngsters got to try activities they had never done. Enfield’s young athletes can look forward to the 2012 London Paralympics, and with their enthusiasm – I am sure that some may make it to the nation’s team in four years time.”

Everyone attending was able to speak and mingle with past and present stars of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Julian Goulding and Sue Chick both represented GB and previous Olympics and now work in sport in Enfield and Peter Pearse represented GB in Boccia at previous Paralympics.

Event organiser Ian Reddington commented, “It was great to have so many enthusiastic people enjoying being active and involved. The results at the Paralympics suggest that Great Britain takes disability sport seriously, and that there are lots of opportunities for disabled people to progress in sport.”

Enfield’s sports development team was delighted with the funding support for this event from the London Summer of Sport commissioned by the London Development Agency.

This document was last updated on 2008-09-22 14:54:11 published by the Communications team. Document Reference:LBE_133344