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Olympic winners - six schemes set to benefit as Boris seeks to meet 2012 pledge
28 Apr 2009Street Athletics
As new running tracks are beyond the budgets of most councils, Southwark and Lambeth have adapted school playgrounds to stage running competitions with urban music and dance built into the programme to appeal to youths with little interest in sport. Street Athletics, which has been promoted by
Olympic sprinters Linford Christie and Darren Campbell, and part-funded by Reebok and Barclays' Spaces for Sport programme, aims to keep children healthy and active as well as helping to steer them away from crime.
The Lawn Tennis Association has used some of the profits from Wimbledon fortnight to run a successful grassroots scheme nationwide. But provision remains patchy in London and the Mayor's scheme aims to remedy this by contributing to the cost of refurbishing council-owned courts in all 33 London local authorities and set up inter-borough leagues. If all goes to plan, a park in each local authority will have a tennis “hub” with the best facilities and permanent staff and coaches. Tennis can deliver a major boost to participation by exploiting the temporary surge in interest around Wimbledon when around one million Britons pick up a racket, the Mayor believes.
Judo
The Mayor chose the Croydon Judo Club to launch his scheme today. It reflects the potential of the sport, especially in cities, to boost participation. The aim is to fund new clubs and improvements to the existing 37 clubs in London. City Hall has been working with the national Judo Federation since the start of the year when it decided to spend much of its £10 million Sport England grant over the next four years in the capital.
London Boxing Academy
Mr Johnson will help to fund five boxing academies set up for youths at risk of being excluded from school. The first London Boxing Academy was opened at a Tottenham boxing club for 40 secondary school-aged youths who trained in the gym after lessons. The Mayor visited the club on Tottenham High Road during the election last year. Premises are being sought for a second academy in Hackney with cash from the Learning Trust, which runs Hackney's education services, and the Mayor to help deliver on his social agenda for cutting street crime. The academies are considered an alternative to pupil referral units and are for children most likely to be expelled from school.
Mobile swimming pools
The Sporting Future fund will buy several mobile pools to be used in areas of London with a shortage of permanent facilities. Under a government scheme earlier this year, a 12-metre mobile pool at Lambeth's Lilian Bayliss school attracted 6,000 swimmers in six weeks, including many who had not previously been in a pool.
Disabled sport
Charity Panathlon is expected to be chosen to deliver Mr Johnson's pledge to improve the provision of disabled sport in London. Panathlon will focus in particular on competitive sport for the disabled which has been previously neglected and underfunded. Sport will be offered to pupils in every school for disabled children in London. The Panathlon Challenge is designed to be more appropriate to young disabled people. Sports vary depending upon impairments and include wheelchair bowls, table cricket, football, curling and athletics.
