Kelly Holmes to visit the isles
Sports star Dame Kelly Holmes will be visiting the inaugural Shetland Sports Conference on 3rd October.
The event will be held at the Clickimin and the world class athlete will be a headline speaker at the event.
She will also be joined by chief executive officer for the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust Emma Atkins and multiple medal winner Karen Darke, a London 2012 Paralympic Games medallist and Team GB cycling member for Rio 2016.
The Shetland Sports Conference will host a number of courses, workshops and talks by leading sports figures.
SIC convener Malcolm Bell, said: “I am delighted that such inspirational figures as Dame Kelly Holmes and Karen Darke are coming to Shetland as part of the inaugural Shetland Sports Conference.
“This will be an outstanding opportunity for our sports people, of all ages and abilities, to rub shoulders with the very cream of UK sport and sports coaching. The support of sportscotland was key, and demand for places will undoubtedly be high.”
Representatives from a wide range of sports governing bodies including Scottish Football, Scottish Swimming, Badminton Scotland, Scottish Squash, Scottish Disability Sport and sportscotland Institute of Sport will be giving coach and player development sessions, aimed at supporting clubs and sportspeople in Shetland.
Meanwhile, head of strength and performance conditioning with sportscotland’s Institute of Sport, Phil Moreland, will lead a number of bespoke sessions concerning preparation and conditioning for competitions.
The conference will also see the launch of a Shetland-based coach development programme called Coach Connect, which is a partnership between sportscotland, Shetland Islands Council, sports governing bodies and sports coaches in Shetland.
The scheme includes activities designed to support the development of sports coaches through specific workshops.
Local organisations will also be offering workshops for clubs at the conference. Shetland Islands Council’s external funding officer Michael Duncan will present a session for sports clubs, focusing on funding in Shetland.
Voluntary Action Shetland will be running a workshop looking at how sports clubs can use social media.
Executive manager of Shetland Islands Council’s sport and leisure service, Neil Watt, said: “Shetland has had a great year of sporting successes, including our achievements at the NatWest Island Games in Jersey.
“The Shetland Sports Conference seeks to build on these and aims to develop Shetland’s sporting potential for the future with a specific focus on athletes, clubs and young people. I’m delighted that such an array of inspirational people will be coming to Shetland to tell us their stories and support us on our journey.”
Mike Bailey
How ironic this will be if the event is held in the bowls hall, when the SRT seem determined to decimate the sport of indoor bowls within Shetland by drastically reducing the size of the hall. It is also noticeable that bowls is one popular Shetland sport not mentioned anywhere within the programme of event.
Alvin Leong
She is a runner not a bowler.
Haydn Gear
Alvin, I don’t think it was inferred that Kelly Holmes is bowler. The irony lies in the fact that an Olympic athlete will be visiting a place where a sporting facility is under threat. You either jumped the gun (no pun intended) or you didn’t think it through.No doubt you realise your mistake now !!
Alvin Leong
Not jumping the gun, as a runner, she will probably be more interested in the running track than the bowls hall.
Ali Inkster
As she is visiting in October the chances are she will feign a lot more interest in the bowls hall than she would of if she visited in July.
Mike Bailey
Once again Alvin, you are trying to get involved in a topic you know nothing about. As Haydn infers, you have totally misread the text but just look at the final paragraphs of the article and see how ironic it will be if indoor bowling is finished in Shetland as a result of the ill-thought out actions of the SRT when Neil Watt is aiming “to develop Shetland’s sporting potential for the future” etc.
Alvin Leong
I know all I need to know by just reading this article and yes, I did look at the last paragraph, question is, did you? Neil Watt is SIC not SRT. He also stated the aim of Shetland Sports Conference, not SRT. In fact I do not see SRT mentioned anywhere in the article but you choose to drag up the about the bowls hall.
Further more, from the article, representatives of football, swimming, badminton and squash were mentioned, but not bowls. Why is that I can only wonder.
I also think I understood their message and aims correctly. By getting Kelly Holmes (and Karen Darke) to visit, they are interested in developing some kind of sports but not other.
Mike Bailey
Where do I say Neil Watt is connected to the SRT ? I just quoted what he said.
ian tinkler
Good on Kelly for coming to inspire our youngsters. One great benefit of being part of UK athletics. Some people just have no sense of humour, Haydn, just not Cricket, kelly Holmes could bowl for my team, anyday!
Alvin Leong
Not so long ago, I was given a long lecture on these very pages about the right to free speech. Today I am just exercising that right. No one had told me that this right had been removed during the few months that had passed?
David Spence
I think we should spend more time providing proper education and higher standards of education.
Yes, sport has it’s place, but treating sport as if it was more important than other forms of education only proves that the same tactics in sport are the exact same tactics used in Business, including cheating……..in the case of business, or most of it, lying to the customer, ripping off the customer, conning the customer, deceiving the customer etc etc………both forms of behaviour (sport and business) bring out, or can do, the worst in human nature in the goal of achieving a prize, trophy whatever in a highly competitive situation.
Although sport is important, in certain fields, the obesity of this country, especially the young, is on the increase. If the vile Tories want to do something to tackle this, I would suggest making junk food very, very expensive (£10.00 for a burger/bacon/sausage roll) and proper, nutritional and healthy food cheap………instead of it being the other way around.
Then again, with the vile Tories trying to get this country to emulate the States, it is not surprising obesity is on the increase, and sport is promoted more so, not because of health, but to ingrain the competitive nature, applied within business, within the population.
Haydn Gear
Ian you seem to have missed the point I made 100%. I’m all in favour of high profile sports people inspiring youngsters and I applaud the prospect of Kelly visiting Shetland. You might well be happy to have her bowling for you (and so would many) but that wasn’t the point.As we all know, she’s famous for her running so to refer to her as a bowler was out of kilter.What’s more, it had no bearing on my sense of humour , so what on earth were you babblig about? I think you spend too much time picking holes and whingeing for the love of it. Get clued up man and think and understand before plunging into waters that are too deep for you.You never know , you might become more tolerant and tolerable. I know it’s a long shot but miracles have been known to happen.! Give it a try.It might cheer you up and that would be no bad thing.
iantinkler
Haydn, lighten up, Kelly is a well known lady cricketer. Her bowling skill are truly phenomenal, her run up being spectacular (sorry Kelly, just dreaming you were in my team).. Haydn, whatever happened to your sense of humor. We do not all take ourselves quite as seriously as you seem to, must be an ego thing about creative people! To explain, just so you fully understand, it was a joke about Cricket, you know, they have bowlers whom run, could be perhaps, that was what Alvin was on about also. Sad you have to pontificate and critisize so, says a so much about you.
Haydn Gear
In view of the fact that Ian Tinkler seems to know everything about everything, is a self appointed expert on everything under the sun and rigidly incapable of accepting that other people may be right in their opposing views I feel tempted to give him up as a hopeless case. What is particularly galling is his tendency to resort to making personal gibes as if to convince readers that he can’t possibly be wrong–ever.What a genius, the uncrowned king of Shetland is.The Saviour without portfolio.!!Tell Nicola , quick.
Brian Smith
My favourite contribution by IT was the one where he said that if everybody in Shetland voted SNP at the next election, the remainder of the population would go it alone …
ian tinkler
Interesting comment Brian, please reference for my archive lol.
ian tinkler
What is particularly galling is his tendency to resort to making personal gibes, wow, ever heard about glass houses and stone throwing, Haydn? . Now in view of your so clever comment “Haydn Gear,November 12th, 2014 18:05, Shetland Times, “As for the wealthy old boy Public School ruling classes, how can they possibly relate in any way to the ordinary common men and women who were not born with silver spoons in their mouths? ” Just how do you feel about Danus being from the same Old Etonian nest as Cameron and Osborne? Was that your idea of a joke or just a constructive intelligent comment? A picture for you, just Cricket, two interesting people do you not think? (http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Kelly+Holmes/Prime+Minister+David+Cameron+Makes+Official/ILAlfol7SnL)
haydn gear
Ian, whilst I am not in favour of unearned wealth, status and privilege, it was not Danus Skene’s choice to attend Eton—-that decision was made by his parents.Similarly, the so called royals perform similarly. Power tends to breed the felt need to occupy the best deals. You try getting into the royal box at Wimbledon !! On the other hand, Kelly Holmes probably could because she’s a proven star without all the early life trappings, so good on her. Power isn’t always linked to ability predication.Kim Jong-un, the dictator of the North Korean “Democracy” was duffer at his private school in Switzerland (£16,000 a year). D Skene spent his life as a teacher and adviser so a feet on the ground man.As for Churchill, another Etonian,he seemed to have his successes along with some failures . In the end,it doesn’t matter if you go to Coleg Gwent or Oxford ,Yale,Harvard or Alabama Tech. It’s what you can do and how well you do it.By the way the photo of Cameron and Kelly was on a hockey pitch in India, not Cricket !!!
Haydn Gear
I dangled the carrot and the usual suspects failed to bite !! Was that because they didn’t know any different? Surely not. They are much too smart for that, or so they would have us believe!! Churchill didn’t go to Eton. He went to Harrow.I wonder if Darus is aware of that? Of course IT will have known!!!!!!!!!!
Peter Abbit
Maybe if more laid similar traps the crushing weight of collective corrections would put an end to the sanctimonious sermons? Or just adhere to standard internet protocol and starve the blighter of any further fuel for his future fires.