Friday 4 August 2017

SportsFest celebrates fun, friendship and fair play with local youth

Thousands of Year 5-8 students from across the Wellington region will experience fun, friendship, and fair play at SportsFest this year – encouraged by a group of Kiwi sporting heroes.

SportsFest is an action packed two-day multi-sports festival exclusive to Wellington, where the focus is on participation, and games are modified to suit younger players – like Rippa Rugby and Minipolo.

Kiwi sports stars involved include Irene van Dyk (Netball), Peter Taylor (Rowing) and Sarah Cowley-Ross (Heptathlon), who will be on hand at the event’s various venues offering advice, encouragement, and stories from their years of experience as high performance athletes.

Wellington City Council Education Partnership Leader Elspeth McMillan says she is pleased with the strong support already shown for the event from schools around the region.

“For the third year running we’ve had a good uptake with 50 schools and more than 3000 students participating. This is in addition to team managers, sports coordinators, and of course we couldn’t do it without parents volunteering their time too.

“SportsFest also couldn’t happen without the partnership between Wellington City Council, Primary Sport Wellington, ASB Bank, and 11 Regional Sports Organisations – all coming together to make this unique event a success for the capital,” she adds.

ASB regional manager Amanda Young says ASB is proud to be involved in this year’s much-loved Wellington SportsFest.

“SportsFest provides a great opportunity to support Wellington’s future high performance athletes, giving them exposure to some of the greatest sporting names in New Zealand. We look forward to being involved in this year’s event,” says Amanda.

About Wellington SportsFest 2017
SportsFest runs from August 15-16 with Years 5 and 6 students competing on the first day and Years 7 and 8 students competing on the second day. The competitions will take the form of round robin tournaments concluding with a prize-giving.

Games will be played at various venues across the city including ASB Sports Centre, Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre, and the National Hockey Stadium.

The event is free and open to the public.

ENDS

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