Young people inspired by the Olympics

Sport Imperial welcomed guests from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Westminster Sports Unit this morning to Ethos.

Sport Imperial welcomed guests from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government this morning to Ethos. 26 Young People from the Tokyo sports association along with their staff visited Ethos and were greeted by the Sport Imperial Team. Alongside the Japanese, we welcomed 25 Young People from Westminster Councils Summer Programme, 'Edutain'.

The morning began with an English welcome from Samantha Bell - Sports Services Manager and a Japanese Welcome from Kazunori Itagaki, Senior Director of the Bureau of Sports Division. Kazunori presented Andy Durrant, Head of Sport & Leisure (Westminster Council) with a certificate detailing the gift of Olympic hockey tickets. Andy was very grateful of this and explained that the tickets had been used by both young people on Westminster's Champions of the future programme and children from the local hockey club. The young people were then mixed into two groups and assigned a Sport Imperial leader. Each group then attended their first activity session.

One group attended a Judo session, led by Imperial Judo club coach, Glenn Spiers. The other group headed out to the secret garden where Anthony Hennelly, sports development officer led a Quick cricket session. This was a new sport for the Japanese who had never tried cricket before. They easily turned their hand to it after practicing baseball back home.

At 10.30am the children returned from their first session to be greeted by Richard Weinberger, a Canadian Open Water 10k swimmer. Richard won the Hyde Park Series test event last year and is hoping to medal in the Olympic event in Hyde Park event on Friday. Richard kindly had group photographs taken with the young people, did a short question and answer with the group and left behind a number of signed cards and Canadian pin badges. It was interesting to hear that he has swam in waters with 4ft crocodiles but that it doesn't phase him. We wish him good Luck for Friday.

The children then attended their second session. This was then followed by a lunch and networking session. It was at this point that it was great to see the young people socialising with each other without the encouragement of staff. The English children were sharing their English food with the Japanese and the Japanese were teaching them their language. We then lined the two groups up facing each at which point they all exchanged a gift and thanked one another.

The day finished on a high with a Japanese young person thanking everybody in English about his experience.

Samantha Bell - Sports Services Manager said, 'This is what the Olympics is all about. It's not just about watching the elite athletes compete but inspiring a young generation, creating the opportunities for them to participate in any form of physical activity or sport and educating the young people culturally. It was a great experience for all the young people involved.'