This morning consisted of a flurry of athlete activity; squeezing in one last session before tonights opening ceremony. The swimmers got down to business in the pool and practiced their speed work. Our athletics team also headed down to the National Sports Centre and practiced their starts and speed on the track. Due to a large number of entries, the Mens boxing competition started before the Opening Ceremony. Boxers Gage Brown and Aryk Whalley stepped into the ring while Cory Miles had a bye. First up was Gage who was matched against a competitor from Northern Ireland. After the first round Gage was up on points, but two unlucky headshots caused the referee to stop the bout. Aryk also had a fantastic first fight, dominating the competitor from Dominica and moving into the next round which will be held tomorrow. Today was Education Day for the athletes. Every competing country has been matched with a local primary school that has spent the whole year learning about your country. After frightening the children with the haka, the group was asked questions from 400 primary school kids. Our athletes gave fantastic advice on having fun while training and competing, organising time and trying to reach your goals. This was a very valuable and motivating trip for our athletes. The highlight of the evening was the opening ceremony which took place at the Bowl Stadium. Each country was called in separately and walked a 400m loop on the track to the brass band and the cheers of the audience! Prince Edward (Duke of Wessex) officially opened the 4th Commonwealth Youth Games. The team thoroughly enjoyed the second part of the ceremony which consisted of Manx story telling, dancing and fireworks! Tomorrow we have competitors in all sports competing in the first stages of the Games! Please stay tuned via our facebook page for up-to-date results!
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