London 2012 blog

I had the pleasure of attending the Get Set London roadshow which was taking place in the middle of the Whitgift Shopping Centre in Croydon all day on Thursday. As one of the team behind the Croydon Harriers Athletics Club, the fact that the Games is coming to London means a lot to me because it is so important to get young people interested in sport these days. Anything to promote sport is, in my eyes, good for the country and many people were able to see it while they were out shopping and on a break from work and Croydon College.

The younger people especially loved the sporting equipment there for them to try – one group came back repeatedly to challenge each other on the ‘batak’ and another group of about 12 squeezed onto the seats to have their picture taken. They were capitalising on every opportunity! One young man tested his grip strength and had 67 – the male average is about 40 apparently and a young girl had a strength of 37, when most women score about 25.

The good thing for us at the Croydon Harriers is that an encouraging number of people put their names down to receive information about joining the club. It’s surprising that people do not  understand how athletics can help them to shine at other sports. There is often good transfer.



We had one lad who was a boxer and we explained how he could help increase his shoulder strength through javelin and shot put and how other training could help him to become really nimble. He couldn’t refuse to put his name down after that! We’d further like to draw attention to ourselves via our website which we think interested folk will find informative and entertaining – www.croydonharriers.com.

The Get Set London Roadshow is a great help, because many people don’t realise how they can get involved in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Games and what opportunities there are for them – not just through sport. The Games seem slightly inaccessible to the everyday worker, but the roadshow shows that it really isn’t at all. Many people came along to find out about working for the Games too, so I think that shows that people are interested now, even though there is still a while to go until the event itself.

I’d recommend people go along to one of the next roadshows if they haven’t managed to do so before. Even teenagers should now realise that in 4 years time, when the Olympic and Paralympic Games reaches London, some of them may even be competing and others will be in line for jobs there. I am convinced that London 2012 will be of huge interest. Find out when and where the next roadshow is on

Me at the roadshow: