On 16 November, an athletics competition for first- to third-grade students from Bolesławiec primary schools was held at MZS No. 2 on Jana Pawła II Street. The aim of the competition was to popularize athletics, improve the children’s health and physical fitness, promote new and attractive forms of physical activity, encourage students to take up new forms of physical activity, support early-years and physical education teachers in planning and conducting innovative classes, encourage parents to take an interest in health-promoting physical activity for their children, and promote athletics as the most popular and leading sport in primary schools.
Around 300 children from five Bolesławiec primary schools took part in the competition: Primary School No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5. The young athletes competed in four events:
- hurdle relay
- combined jumps
- cross jumps
- backward overhead medicine-ball throw.
After the competition, each participant received a commemorative medal and certificate. The event’s special guest was Bolesławiec Deputy Mayor Kornel Filipowicz.
The competition was held as part of the Athletics for Everyone! programme for popularizing athletics, which has been running since September 2014. Its partners are PKN Orlen, Nestlé Polska S.A., the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, the Polish Athletics Association, the Bolesławiec City Hall and the Athletics Centre in Bolesławiec (coaches Bartosz Gruman, Sylwia Kawałko, Wanda Wysocka and Rafał Kwieciński).
The organizers would like to thank the management and staff of MZS No. 2 in Bolesławiec, early-years teachers from the schools participating in the event, and the volunteers (coaches and athletes from MKS Bolesłavia) for their help in conducting the competition.
Objectives of the Athletics for Everyone! programme
The Athletics for Everyone! programme is an innovative concept for popularizing athletics as children’s and young people’s first contact with sport, and at later stages for recruiting and selecting athletes for professional participation in selected events of the Queen of Sports. The project of the Polish Athletics Association was created by specialists, managers and coaches mainly to popularize and promote athletics. The training programme they developed was adapted to the needs and abilities of children at every stage of development and enables the proper organization of classes.
At primary-school level, in grades I–III, cooperation is based on:
- organizing school and interschool events
- loaning Athletics for Everyone! equipment
- organizing training sessions for teachers on conducting physical activities using certified Athletics for Everyone! equipment
- developing teaching materials for early-years teachers on healthy eating.
At the level of grades IV–VI of primary school, coaches:
- conduct regular sessions in recruitment groups
- organize athletics competitions
- organize nationwide competitions
- conduct regular OSF tests and monitor results.
At the middle-school level
- we promote the creation of athletics-focused sports classes by local governments
- we organize athletics competitions,
- we conduct OSF tests and monitor results
- we equip schools with athletics equipment and athletes’ clothing (tracksuits and T-shirts).
Funding sources for the Athletics for Everyone! programme
- Ministry of Sport and Tourism
- Lower Silesian Voivodeship
- partners and sponsors.
The Athletics for Everyone! programme is also developing thanks to the involvement of local-government units (the Municipality of Bolesławiec) and consists of providing sports facilities free of charge for classes and competitions, as well as financing the purchase of athletics equipment.