Girls get active at Castleford sports festival

Fifty girls enjoyed sporty fun at a festival in Airedale organised to promote the health benefits of being active.
Us girls sports day CastlefordUs girls sports day Castleford
Us girls sports day Castleford

The Us Girls sports festival at The Hut gave girls from across the area the chance to try out sporting activities as well as playing games.

The free women-only event was hosted by Wakefield Council in partnership with sports charity StreetGames.

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The charity runs the festivals to help break down barriers faced by young women when getting involved with sport.

Activities on the day included dance and fitness, gymnastics, netball, football, touch rugby and taekwondo.

There were also free healthy snacks, beauty treatments and goodie bags.

Craig Moss, Wakefield Council sports and activity development officer, said: “It was fantastic that the girls aged between eight and 16 all wanted to either try new sports or play games with their friends.

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“It’s great that we could put on an event like this and it’s one that we would look to run again.

“It’s brilliant that we could raise awareness of local sporting opportunities and promote the health benefits that come with being active.

“The Us Girls festivals are all about bringing young women together to have fun playing sport, removing all the barriers such as cost, equipment, ability and body image.”

The one-off event gave girls the opportunity to try six different sporting activities in one afternoon.

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Jane Ashworth, chief executive of StreetGames, said: “Neighbourhood festivals allow our projects to take sport right to the doorstep of local communities.”

The Us Girls project, now in its third year, aims to encourage young women from deprived areas to get active in a friendly female-only environment delivered in a fun and social way.

For more information, go to www.streetgames.org or tweet them @UsGirlsTweet