Linda Owen
Linda Owen
I was excited to meet John Scott, Chief
Executive of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games today. Dumfries
and Galloway was hosting a visit from HRH The Queen and the theme
of the pre visit entertainment was the Commonwealth. The streets of
Dumfries were awash with a colourful mix of flags provided by the
commonwealth village of Eastriggs (18 miles away), where streets
are named after commonwealth cities and countries. There was a real
buzz around the town. Given the theme John had been asked to say a
few words about Glasgow 2014 and the forthcoming Handover Ceremony
in Delhi on 14 October at 1:30pm.
It was fascinating to watch people listen to
John speak about Glasgow 2014 and to let the local community know
that we had people representing Dumfries and Galloway in Delhi and
that the biggest event Scotland has ever hosted is on our doorstep.
He also spoke about the opportunities that would be available to
our young people to hopefully compete in this and future
Commonwealth games along with opportunities for people to attend
events and volunteer.
As I watched John speak to a variety of people
at the event including the council’s Chief Executive, it became
clear that the passion for Glasgow 2014 is to encourage community
cohesion and with it the self confidence and wellbeing of
individuals through sport, healthy activities and volunteering. In
Dumfries and Galloway we want to be part of this and as such we are
developing our own Glasgow 2014 legacy plan to make sure that as
many local people have the opportunity to be involved as possible.
We are also working closely with partner to promote the Active
Nations campaign.
John came back to our flagship state of the
art leisure complex DG One, which recently welcomed its 1 millionth
customer is just over 2 year of operation. There he was able to see
for himself the fantastic range of facilities including 3 swimming
pools, 80 station fitness suite, dance studio and a 6 court sports
hall available for local people. This venue is LOCOG
registered and is available not only for visiting national teams to
Glasgow 2014 but also for our young people to become athletes of
the future. Dumfries and Galloway hopes to attract teams in
basketball, badminton, athletics, road cycling and mountain biking
to use the area as their training base.
It was great that the Chief Executive of
Glasgow 2014 would take time out of his schedule to share his
passion with the people of Dumfries and Galloway and we hope to
welcome him back in the not so distant future.
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