Sports Management Q2 2011 - UUM

NEWS
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SkillsActive, the sector skills council for
sport and active leisure, has teamed up with
Sports Offi cials UK to launch a new set of
occupational standards for offi ciating.
Th e National Standards for Offi ciating
have been drawn up in order to help boost
umpiring and refereeing excellence across a
wide range of sports at every level.
It is hoped that the standards from
SkillsActive and Sports Offi cials UK are to
assist with the design of offi cials’ courses
and other development activities.
Members of the public can now use the complex
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Lee Valley White Water Centre in Waltham
Cross, Hertfordshire, is the fi rst London
2012 venue to open to the public.
Morrison Construction built the venue,
with S&P Architects working as the delivery
designers for the project. Lee Valley
Regional Park Authority will own and run
the centre before and aft er the Games.
Facilities include a 300m competition
course; a 160m intermediate/training
course; and a FaulknerBrowns Architectsdesigned
facility building.
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Birmingham City Council’s cabinet is to
move forward with proposals for a new
£13.5m swimming pool in Sparkhill.
Members backed the launch of a competitive
tender process for the design, build
and management of the new facility.
A 25m, six-lane pool, a learner pool, a
dance studio, a 70-station adult gym and a
20-station junior gym are proposed.
Councillors are also hopeful that savings
can be made from the £13.5m estimate. Th e
tender process will launch in July.
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New research to mark the
launch of the Tata Kids of
Steel triathlon initiative has
found that nearly four-fi ft hs of
UK children spend their free
time watching television.
A survey of 1,500 young
people aged between six and
15 – commissioned by Tata
Steel in partnership with
British Triathlon – revealed
only a third played sport.
Th e study also found that
56 per cent surfed the internet;
45 per cent used social
networks; and 43 per cent
played video games, rather than participating
in physical activity. It was also revealed that 15
per cent of children questioned admitted being
unable to swim, while one in ten young people
said they could not ride a bicycle.
It comes as Tata Steel has pledged to provide
more than 50,000 young people aged between
Nearly 75 locations across
the UK have been revealed
as forming part of the route
for next summer’s Olympic
Torch Relay by the organisers
of the 2012 Games.
Th e itinerary was unveiled
by the London Organising
Committee of the Olympic
Games and Paralympic Games
(LOCOG) and is also set to
include visits to the UK’s six
island territories.
On 18 May next year, the
Olympic Flame is due to
arrive from Greece and will
embark on a 70-day tour presented by Coca-
Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung.
Th e route will start at Land’s End, Cornwall,
on 19 May and will move through Devon into
South Wales within the fi rst week. Th e relay
Plans for a Cricket World Cup in 2015 comprising
just the Full Members are to be “revisited”
by the International Cricket Council (ICC) .
ICC president Sharad Pawar has called on
the executive board to re-examine the issue
Th e study found that a third of children play sport in their leisure time
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eight and 13 with the opportunity to take part
in a triathlon. Th is summer will see the initiative
visit 18 UK locations.
Karl Köhler, chief executive offi cer of Tata
Steel in Europe, said: “Th is research has highlighted
a number of important issues which we
hope Tata Kids of Steel will help to address.”
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10 Read Sports Management online sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital
image: lee valley rpa
Th e fi rst 74 locations to form part of the 70-day tour have been named
will eventually end in London in late July.
Meanwhile, LOCOG has also confi rmed that
discussions are underway between “relevant
parties” with a view to including Dublin,
Ireland, in the Olympic Flame’s itinerary.
when it meets in Hong Kong in June, aft er protests
from associate and affi liate nations.
Under the new format for the 2015 tournament,
teams including Ireland and the
Netherlands will not be able to compete despite
having done so in the previous two events.
Issue 2 2011 © cybertrek 2011
image: monkey business images/shutterstock.com