On July 6 2011, more than 1,500 young people from across all the four Boroughs of the Black Country competed in over 13 sports, including athletics, volleyball, badminton and basketball, as well as adapted sports such as wheelchair rugby, football and Boccia for pupils with disability and special needs.
The central venue for the Black Country Games was AldersleyLeisureVillage, Wolverhampton with sports played at an additional six sites in the surrounding area.
The event was supported by regional radio station Heart FM and hosted by presenter Julian Jones with special guests including Denise Lewis OBE (born 27 August 1972, in West Bromwich in the Black Country) who is a retired British athlete who specialised in the heptathlon. She won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Denise was a true inspiration to the young people and spent over 3 hours participating in the event, having photpgraphs taken and signing autographs giving the young people a fabulous momento of the day.
The games was level 3 of schools national competition framework with all of the schools participating earning the right to represent their borough by participating in level 2 competitions. The level 2 competitions were managed by the Competition Managers. Dudley’s competition manager Matt Marson has worked hard through the year to ensure that all the level 2 competitions were successful.
The Black Country were chosen as one of 9 national pilots to identify areas of success and improvement for 2012 when children from across England will be given an opportunity to participate in the level 3 competition.
Dudley Schools performed extremely well throughout the day and were a credit to their schools and the borough.
The level 3 event was managed by the 4 Black Country local authority sport and physical activity development teams in partnership with School Sport Partnerships. The level 2 competitions were managed by the competition managers.
