Commonwealth Youth Games

The commonwealth youth games ended last week and it was a terrific performance by the English team.

Finishing third overall with 41 medals is a fantastic achievement and gives us real hope of a good performance at the next Olympics, here, in London, in just under four years time.

18 of our 41 medals were gold, and we were only surpassed by the hosts India, who will be hosting the 2010 senior commonwealth games, and not surprisingly, the Australians.

Encouringly, 13 of our medals were won in Athletics events, with another 14 coming from the swimming pool, which follows on from our superb Olympic and Paralympic performances in the water this summer in China.

The athletics result in particular should stand out, after a poor performance in the birds nest stadium, just 5 medals compared to our swimming and cycling performances. This was an exceptional achievement by everyone in India, now back in the U.K the U.K athletics board can take that futher and guide our young athletes to realise their potential and become world beaters.

They have four years, and possibly the best four years they will have, to progress and train and take on the world stage. The U.K is pouring more money than ever into athletics, and so now is the time to become one of the worlds greatest athletic nations, and on the base of this performance last week in India, the future is very bright indeed.

2011 Youth Games

The 2011 Commonwealth youth games are to be held on the Isle of Man, which should be a delight to the U.K and surely an advantage. It will be just one year before we hold the Olympics in London, and so any athletes may be just too young to the 2012 games, but who knows.