The III Youth Commonwealth Games, Pune, India
For our group of young Welsh athletes, the first hurdle to overcome on their Race to 2012 was their first taste of a multi-sport event – the Youth Commonwealth Games held in Pune, India.
In India 1300 competitors from 71 countries came to compete in 9 events over 6 days.
Our group of hopefuls were part of the Welsh team comprising 37 athletes and 18 support staff (mainly coaches) in 7 sports: badminton, boxing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis and weightlifting.
They came from every part of Wales – all of them united by the fact that they were under 18.
Of the 37 athletes selected, 10 were swimmers and 8 were boxers and there were high expectations from individuals in both these sports.
Pune, India
Travelling to far-off places is one of the highlight of being an elite athlete. But nothing could have really prepared our group of young athletes for the sights they would see landing in India.
The city of Pune, known as the 'Oxford of the East', because of the high number of universities in the city, is in the hills about four hours from Mumbai. It's part of the Maharashtra state of India and is the state's second biggest city .
It's a city of some 3.5million people with a vibrant culture and rich blend of ethnic diversity.
And there's traffic. Lots and lots of traffic.
The Sports Village
The Games themselves were held at the magnificent Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports City, a large sports campus specifically built to host the games.
As with the Olympics in 2012, the athletes were expected to stay within the Games Village – staying as a team in their own hotel – which they were quick to brand with the Welsh Dragon!
Behind the Scenes
The team was led by Anne Ellis as CGCW President and Chris Jenkins was the team leader. Wales had an experienced doctor - Gareth Jones - and world-class physiotherapist Nicki Phillips (Nicki led the GB team in the Beijing Olympics).
Sporting Highlights
During the competition there were many highlights…
Few will forget the noise in the Badminton Hall when Wales played India in the boys doubles.
In table tennis, the team performed very well – Dinbych's Angharad Phillips made it through to the last 16 of the competition, and in the boys' team, Patrick Thomas knocked out the number 2 seed.
The standard of tennis was high and Mat James had a good tournament, getting to the quarter finals.
On the shooting ranges, Wales could have medalled in a couple of events as shooters were well placed during the finals but just lost out.
The Boxing Hall saw great Welsh success with 50% of the team winning a medal 48kg. Daniel Chapman won a gold medal in a tight fight in the final, the only one of his bouts to go the distance.
Zack Davies, the youngest boxer in the team, won a silver medal, losing to the competition favourite Nanoa Thockhom from India.
The swimming pool was where Wales won most of their medals. Jemma Lowe won 4 medals, 3 of them individual, all in record times.
In the 4x 200m free relay, Wales beat the Australians to win gold. It was won by Alys Thomas, Jazz Carlin, Jemma Lowe, and Georgia Davies, with Fern Davies swimming in the heats. They set a new Games record and smashed the Welsh Senior record.
The boys' relay team won silver, so the whole swimming squad returned home with a medal and Wales finished second in the swimming medals table.
Overall
Overall, Wales finished sixth in the medal table with 5 gold, 5 silver and 6 bronze – a remarkable achievement given the size of the team.
More importantly though, throughout every sport the Welsh athletes performed well.
And of course, the experience gained at their first multi-sport event will be invaluable as the athletes prepare and take each and every step closer to London in their race to London 2012.