2nd September 2010
Wales heads to Newcastle for the UK School Games
The long awaited 2010 Sainsbury's UK School Games gets underway tomorrow morning in the North East of England with a launch event in Performance Square at The Sage with Olympic gold medallist Darren Campbell and Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust Steve Grainger.
The Opening Ceremony for the Games will take place Thursday evening (8.30pm) at the Gateshead International Stadium to mark the official start of the event. Like last year, the ceremony will be hosted by BBC Sports presenter Jill Douglas.
Hockey and Volleyball will be the first of the 10 sports to commence this year, both starting tomorrow with the rest to follow on Friday and Saturday. Hockey will get underway at 11.00am at Newcastle University's Longbenton Sports Ground, while Volleyball will hosted from 12.00pm at Northumbria University's Sport Central facility.
Over 1,600 elite school aged athletes will descend upon North East England from the 2 - 5 September. Featuring a packed four-day programme of ten sports taking place at some of the region's premier venues, as well as opening and closing ceremonies, an athletes' village, simulation doping control and elite athlete role models, the Sainsbury's UK School Games replicate a major sporting event such as the Commonwealth Games.
The Welsh U18 boys look to defend their gold medal place from the event which was held in Cardiff in 2009 whilst the girls look to improve on last years position.
Good luck to both squads.
