London 2012 blog

I was lucky enough on Friday to attend a Boccia tournament involving 70 primary school children from Hackney.

The tournament organisers – East End SportsAbility with the help of Hackney Council’s Sports Services - worked with the schools to coach the youngsters in the art of Boccia, a Paralympic sport that is similar to the French game of boules or petanque.

The day-long tournament was held at the excellent Space sports centre at Hackney Community College and was as a chance for the youngsters to put their new skills to the test.

London 2012 organised for Zoe Edge, a Boccia silver medallist for Team GB at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games to be there to meet the kids, umpire some games, give some words of encouragement and hand out the awards.

Read more of “Getting the Boccia bug”

Yesterday London 2012 joined the Vaisakhi festival celebrations in Trafalgar Square. We set up a stand so we could discuss progress on the project and talk to Londoners - particularly in the Sikh community - on all aspects of the Games.

It was a wholly positive event. People were particularly interested in volunteering, the Cultural Festival that will run from 2008, progress on the Park and employment opportunities.

We had a constant flow of people during the day - all ages, from around the UK and across the world. Everyone was hugely enthusiastic.

We also enjoyed the some great cultural displays from the Sikh community - a highlight for me were the Dhol Drummers, who also performed at the London 2012 bid celebrations on 6 July 2005.

Read more of “Joining Sikh celebrations in the Square”

A big thank you to the residents of Newham for a lively discussion and Q&A session on the 2012 Games yesterday evening, the first of its kind that we've run.

Topics ranged from security to transport, from contamination to the culture programme. Everyone had a different view, a different area of interest.

In the audience of about 200 adults was a student from a local secondary school. She really impressed me as she had the courage to stand up in front of all those adults and ask her questions - she wanted to know how young people could get involved.

She reminded me of how much I am looking forward to working with young people in the area (and the organisations that work with them) to ensure that we all go on this journey together.

One of the main things I realised is that people really appreciated having a forum to ask questions directly to us, face to face. This is something we'll definitely think about going forward. If you missed us this time round, don't worry, we will be back for sure - starting in Greenwich tomorrow!

Read more of “Newham: Questions on the road”