Mini Athletes!

South West Athletics Academy has just announced that Westerly Exeter MINI have proved their commitment to the legacy from the Olympic and Paralympic Games by agreeing to sponsor a MINI athletes programme. This is aimed at children in the age range 4 -8 to encourage them to come and try athletics and have lots of fun. There are also junior athlete sessions for those aged 9-12 that run at the same time as the MINI Athlete programme.

Sonya Ellis – Head Coach of South West Athletics Academy said ‘ It really is fantastic to get the support of such an important local business and to see them actively supporting the legacy from the Games. It is important to get children in sport from an early age and athletics is a great way to do that. With this support from Westerly MINI we are now also planning to go ahead with producing an information pack that all new MINI Athletes will get when they join.

Westerly MINI have also agreed to sponsor an exciting new concept that we are bringing to the south west which is a portable athletics track that we can use in city and town centres or take to schools and we are planning a launch in the next few months.’

MINI Athletics is great fun and focuses on fundamental skills such as running, jumping, balance, coordination and throwing by using special equipment and games. All the equipment is safe and adapted for children such as our popular sparkly shot putts that are really bouncy and have flashing lights and glitter. These are really popular with children as are our foam javelins and mini hurdles.

Darren Duffy, Brand Manager of Westerly Exeter MINI, said’ It is especially pleasing to be involved in athletics at the grassroots level and I am delighted to be supporting the rapidly growing MINI athlete programme. So far there are groups in Exeter and Exmouth and Sonya has told me of her plans to expand this even further. The portable track sounds like a fantastic idea and I look forward to seeing it up and running! ’

The BMW Group were corporate sponsors of the Olympic Games and also supplied miniature radio controlled MINI cars to collect the javelins, discusses and shots from the field events in the Olympic stadium. These were a great success and added a different dimension to the Games.

If your children have been inspired by the Olympics to try out athletics the award winning South West Athletics Academy has a special offer for 4 – 8 year old MINI Athletes to try out their skills for only £1 for the first session. Locations and times of all sessions are on South West Athletics Academy website  www.sw-athletics-academy.co.uk  Email info@sw-athletics-academy.co.uk or call 07745 616852.

We are proud to  announce the launch of our new portable athletics track surface. To celebrate the launch a sprint challenge is being held at:

Exeter’s Princesshay on Saturday 30^th March

with all welcome to come and try out the new surface.

Sonya Ellis – Head Coach of the Award Winning Academy said ‘

‘This is an exciting new project – we are leading the way in the south west with this type of portable track. The great thing about it is that we can take the track out into the community and raise awareness of athletics. We can also take it to schools for sports days and events and we are also planning indoor technical sessions next winter when the weather is not good. The track is two colours and looks really good in city centre locations. It really is great that we have been given the opportunity to launch this track in Princesshay and we thank Princesshay Centre Management for their support. Also a big thank you to Westerly Exeter MINI who are our first sponsors of this event.’

This event is being supported by GB sprinter, Commonwealth Gold and Silver medallist Katherine Endacott. Katherine will be at the Sprint Challenge and hopes to encourage more young people to take up athletics.

The aim of sprint challenge is to provide an opportunity to test your speed over a 10m or 30m distance using a high tech speed gate system. We want to find out who is the fastest in Exeter and attract people to athletics. You can have several sprints and will get a certificate recording your times. There will also be a racing wheelchair so anyone can have a go and try out the new surface.

The event starts at 10am in the main Princesshay Square outside Debenhams and we will be there until 5pm.  There will also be other athletics based activities such as speed bounce, standing long jump and balance beam. There will be small charge of £1 to try the activities to raise funds for community sports delivered by South West Athletics Academy.

Further details are in the portable track section of this website or call Sonya Ellis on 07745 616852 e mail info@sw-athletics-academy.co.uk

  Sonya Returns from amazing experience at both Olympics and Paralympics

My role as a Volunteer Gamesmaker at both the Paralympics and the Olympics was to start in first call on the warm up track and escort athletes in their event groups through the tunnel to final call under the stand then onto their track or field event. Then to escort them to the start and wait in case of false starts for the track – or on the field wait trackside until the end of the event supporting the officials with various duties.

At both events meeting and supporting all the athletes and ensuring all reached their events on time and the whole atmosphere,  teamwork  and experience was an unforgettable once in a life time opportunity that I will never forget.