Lewisham Celebrates local sporting talent

On Wednesday 9th July we hosted our annual GLL Sport Foundation evening celebrating local sporting talent. The event took place in the Studio Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Catford. 37 athletes across a range of sports and ages attended the event along with friends and family.  

The evening started with a display from Nomad Taekwondo, who put forward 4 of the 8 athletes from the club we support to perform some Poomsae moves, they dazzled the audience with some high kicks that narrowly missed those in the front row. Such was the precision of these kicks it generated audible gasps from the crowd impressed at what they had seen.  

These 8 Taekwondo athletes form just a small proportion of the 102 athletes we support in the London Borough of Lewisham. This is the fourth year we have run the programme seeing it grow from just 40 in year 1 to the 102 athletes we now support. Of those athletes supported by the GLL Sport Foundation 57% are under the age of 21, with 32% being under the age of 16. Our youngest supported athlete is 12, with our oldest supported athlete being 69.  

Of those supported in Lewisham, 96% received no other external funding to help them with their sport.  

Former Olympian Jade Johnson joined us for the start of the evening to mingle and chat to our guests.   
Alongside our sporting guests we were also joined by colleagues from Lewisham Council and senior colleagues for the GLL team.  

The evening closed with a Q&A with Peggy who is the current National Cyclo Cross Champion, having successfully defended her title she won last year she is also 2x national Cyclo Cross trophy series winner. She spoke about the challenge of defending her national title all whilst studying and revising for her GCSE’s. She shared her tips and thoughts to the audience about how she balances competing and studying. She also announced that she had just be selected to represent Team GB at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Skopje (North Macedonia).  
 
Peggy is one of 8 GLL Sport Foundation Athletes supported nationally to be chosen for this event along with two athletes from Team Ireland who also receive support from the GLL Sport Foundation  
 
To find out more about the GLL Sport Foundation please visit https://www.gllsportfoundation.org