In the last few days, we
have seen the 2018 Commonwealth Games get underway at the Gold Coast in
Australia. The Games will go on until 15th April, with more
than 6,600 athletes and team officials from 71 Commonwealth nations and territories
taking part. New sports including Women’s Rugby Sevens and the Para Triathlon
are making their Commonwealth Games debuts this year.
I was particularly
pleased to hear that Molly Caudery will be competing in the pole vault. Molly
trains at Carn Brea Leisure Centre, and will be the youngest competitor in the
English team.
You know you're getting
older when you start sentences with "I knew her father" but Stuart
Caudery was a highly accomplished decathlete (and pole vaulter) and was a
member of Cornwall Athletic Club at the same time as me in the late 80's and
early 90's. There would often be times when a small band of us from
Cornwall would head off in the minibus at the crack of dawn, London bound, to
hold our position in the Southern Athletics League. When you are thinly
spread across lots of different events, a decathlete is an essential part of
the team and Stuart was always kept busy!
I wish Molly the very
best of luck in her debut at the highest level of international competition and
Cornwall will be willing her on all the way.
Cornish athletes have
often played a huge part in the success of our national teams. In 2012, Ben
Ainslie won his event for the fourth time and Helen Glover took Britain’s first
gold of the Olympic Games. She went on to win gold again in Rio. Paratriathlete
Melissa Reid, from Porthtowan was selected to participate in the 2016
Paralympics.
The legacy from the
London 2012 Olympics is often described as economic, encouraging trade, inward
investment and tourism. However, I hope that the most important legacy is that
a generation of young people has been inspired to take up sport thanks to the
emergence of new role models to encourage young athletes to follow their
passion.
I am supportive of the
campaign to get every primary school in the UK running the Daily Mile. Several
of our local schools have already signed up and some have even linked it to
fundraising efforts for charity. It is a great way to get children in
the habit of regular exercise from a young age.
Last week, the largest
Olympic-style youth sports event in the region took place at Mount Hawke skate
park. Lots of young people enjoyed the experience of competing at one of the UK's
best skate parks and host of the Team GB Olympic Trials for Tokyo 2020. The
Mount Hawke team took gold in both the scooter and skateboard team classes.
We have some fantastic
sporting success stories here in Cornwall, and our local athletes have given us
much to be proud of.
