Address by Geoff Karran –Chairman of the Organising Committee
Submitted on: Feb 17, 2008
We are now busy making the arrangements for what we hope will be a very successful Youth Games 2011. Our Island may be small but we are very proud, experienced in running sporting events and determined to make our Games special and one you will all remember.
I have completed the formation of my organisation committee which is made up of 9 men and 6 women each of whom have a specific responsibility in the organisation of the event, from Games Director to Medical Officer and Ceremonies Co-ordinator to Results officer. We meet every quarter and the minutes of the meeting are being sent to your Executive officers.
In addition our Chief Sports Co-ordinator, who sits on my main Organising Committee, has hand picked one co-ordinator for each of the sports in the Games and here the women outnumber the men 4 to 3. Again they are meeting quarterly to start the planning of their events.
I am hoping that all the 1000 competitors and 250 officials can be accommodated in 3 or 4 star hotels in Douglas our Capital. You can travel to our Island by ferry from Liverpool or Heysham in the North West of England. There are daily air routes from Gatwick, London City Manchester Liverpool Birmingham in England, Glasgow or Edinburgh in Scotland and Belfast in Northern Ireland. We are not in a position to offer any funding for your journey to our Island but of course under the Constitution will meet all accommodation and travel whilst you are on the island between the Wednesday the 7th September and Tuesday the 13th September. If any team wish to extend their time on our Island for say practice purposes we will assist in booking accommodation and making practice areas available at their cost.
Subject to the desire of any team to arrive early all will be welcome on Wednesday the 7th September. On the Thursday practice facilities will be made available for all teams around the Douglas area with specific times in the competition venues. The Opening ceremony will take place during the evening of the Thursday at the National Sports Centre which will be the main venue for events All competition will take place over the 3 days from the 9th to the 11th September inclusive. The final day will be the usual cultural event and then on the Tuesday the 13th it will be time to say goodbye. After the Pune Games we will be sending to all nations a draft programme of proposed events in each sport to try and ascertain the likely numbers that you hope will compete in the Games.
Although all competition will take place in and around Douglas in the East of our Island we have decided to move the Cultural Day to the Ancient Capital of Castletown which is situated in the south of the island. We will have the opportunity to transport some of you by the ancient Steam Railway, and Castletown is the home of the World Tin Bath Race Championship in its harbour, the Southern 100 Motor Cycle races as well as the original building of our ancient Parliament and its marvellously preserved castle the home of the old Kings of Mann. We then plan to keep you all in Castletown for the closing ceremony during the evening in the square in front of the Castle .There is therefore plenty of opportunities for us to show you the traditions and culture of our Island whilst providing a fun day out for the young competitors
We are anxious to leave a legacy of our Games. With the Sponsorship of Britannia International we have produced a video marketing the Games and intend in the next year to start visiting all our Secondary and Primary Schools to get the message over to our children about the Games and hopefully have each school, adopt one of the Nations of the Commonwealth who will be coming to our Island. From our discussions with the organisers of the Manchester Commonwealth Games we would also hope that we can attract volunteers to help with the Games and ensure that they remain volunteers in sport after you have all left our island.
On the 1st November we launched the web site-WWW.CYG2011.COM for our Games with a full press launch on our Island. We hope to update this on a regular basis and provide for all nations interested in competing the information you require. Though we do not intend to detract you all from our friends in India in the organisation of the Pune games 2008, we do intend to have a presence in Pune to supply information and our intention is that our full time games office will be opened in January 2009.
We do hope all nations of the Commonwealth will come to the Isle of Man in 2011- we cannot promise you Olympic type venues but we can promise you a very warm Manx Welcome. Everyone back on our Island is getting very excited at the prospect of you all coming so make a note in your diaries—“September 2011 the Isle of Man is the place to visit”
