Background

‘Destination Sports Mullingar’, is a concept which grew out of the success of the various events held during‚’National Bike Week’ in June 2009 and also as a result of Mullingar being established as a Category One Cycling Hub Town, in line with Failte Ireland’s strategy to promote cycling in Ireland as a tourism product. Then, in September 2009, as part of the Discover Mullingar Day, the very first ‘Sports Zone’ was held in the grounds of Loretto College in Mullingar and other sporting events were also held on the Royal Canal at Harbour Bridge.

Participating Sports Clubs availed of the opportunity to showcase their particular sport and members of the general public, young and old, had a chance to try particular sports, for themselves, in a fun way. The participating sports included: GAA, Soccer, Rugby, Cricket, Hockey, Karate, Boxing, Cycling, Basketball, Swimming & Athletics. There was no doubt, given the huge success of the ‘Sports Zone’ that Mullingar could and should host a bigger and better event.

WHO GOT INVOLVED

Westmeath County Council and Mullingar Town Council in association with Mullingar Chamber of Commerce, Westmeath Sports Partnership, Failte Ireland,
Co. Westmeath Tourism Ltd., An Garda Siochana, Lakeside Wheelers, Mullingar Harriers, Civil Defence, Mullingar Jets, Fighting Cancer Tri, Midland Tri
Club, Greville Arms Hotel, Defence Forces and various other sporting interests, have came together to co-ordinate the hosting of the ‘Destination Sports Mullingar’ event and to engage with the many sports clubs, groups and business interests in Mullingar who wished to host or support an event during the week of the 12th – 20th June.

DESTINATION SPORT ‘FOR FAMILY FUN’

A goal of ‘Destination Sports Mullingar’ was to ensure that everyone attending events or just visiting Mullingar, would, at a minimum, experience the ‘Fun’ side of the week-long celebrations and also to have many opportunities for ‘Family Fun’. Given the undoubted success of the Discover Mullingar Events in 2009, the ‘Taste of Mullingar’ will become even tastier with another open air street market with the best of local food producers, showcasing what the town has to offer, outside of the sporting arena, to those living, working or just visiting the town.

Success of Destination Sports

‘Destination Sports Mullingar’ is about celebrating SPORT. It’s about people being able to see and appreciate the level of sporting activity available right on their doorstep. It’s about showcasing individual sports and encouraging everyone to get involved, if they wish. It’s about people getting to see sports, some maybe for the first time and for people to get a sense of and appreciation for the levels of expertise that can be achieved.

‘Destination Sports Mullingar’ was hugely successful with 8 days full of sporting events and great fun. The weather was great and there were many participants in the sporting events as well as supporters. In the 8 days there were 68 sporting events and over 30 clubs involved. Starting the event there was an opening parade with 21 sports clubs involved followed by was an opening ceremony at the Market Square. Many events during the week included a canal walk, Westmeath Community Games, Boccia League, Karate, 10 pin Bowling, Interfirms soccer, Criterium Cycle Race, Streets on fire 5K and Adult Tag Rugby to name but a few.

The biking aspects of the week included:

• Bike Health Checks (All Week)
• Fun Cycle- the fun cycle was along the canal townpath in Mullingar and a 10km fun cycle in Athlone
• Underage Fun Cycle‚this underage Fun cycle was at the beautiful setting of Belvedere House, Gardens & Park. This event was very popular and huge numbers attended. There was free bike health checks provided on the evening as well as cycling tips and advice from members of the Lakeside Wheelers Club.
• There where 2 Cycle Safe Road Shows one in Castlepollard and one in Kilbeggan. The Cycle Safe tutors met with local schools and gave a demonstration of cycling safety tips and free bike health checks for their own bikes.
• Town Centre Criterium- this event took place on the street of Mullingar Town with individuals and company teams taking part. There are very few opportunities for riders to experience the thrills of racing on closed roads and this is one race that had great numbers of racers attending. Racing started at 6:30pm with 15 teams of four in an Inter-firms Team TT, which proved a very popular event with local club riders. The Cat. 4 race had the biggest field of the night with 70 riders on the start line. In the Category 3 race local riders were very prominent throughout. The main race of the mevening had category 1 and 2 riders racing for 45 minutes and two laps. David O’Loughlin of the An Post Sean Kelly team won first position.

‘The Great Mullingar Turbo Cycle Challenge’‚ is a week long challenge, it challenges the people/ companies of Mullingar to cycle as many kilometres as possible in a week. The challenge was fun, free and suitable for all levels of cyclists. The challenge involved stationary racing bikes which all had a meter keeping record of the distance travelled by each individual. This was then added to the cumulative total of all participants. The people of Mullingar should be proud for exceeding the target of 2000km.

The closing event of National Bike Week was the National Cycling tour on the 20th June. As part of Bike Week 2010, Cycling Ireland where supporting a ‘Raleigh around Ireland’. Over the week three riders took to the roads of Ireland, and between them they travelled through all 32 counties in Ireland.

Club of the year, Lakeside Wheelers, hosted the closing event at 4pm in Mullingar town. The riders converged in Mullingar after a week of cycling, which kicked off at the spire in Dublin city on Sunday 13th May. The three riders were escorted into the town by local riders, who joined them for the last 10 miles. The festival atmosphere was boosted by live music and the Mullingar Farmer’s Market ‚’Taste of Mullingar Experience’.

1. Mullingar Cycle Network Project

This project will deliver 20k of cycle lanes in Mullingar and environs and is progressing under the Greener Routes Strategy and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The vision is to establish Mullingar as a sustainable movement centre, using best practice principles with a view to promoting ‘Green Routes’ to achieve sustainable growth both economically and physically thereby promoting safe travel, improving health and increasing tourism in the greater mullingar area.

2. Smarter Travel Mullingar Project

Under the Smarter Travel Project fund part funded by the Department of Transport, this project collaborates with Westmeath Sports Partnership Ltd., and the HSE, seeks to provide cycling and walking infrastructure, utilising the Royal Canal townpaths around Mullingar town, to encourage commuters to mpark their cars on the outskirts of the town and either walk or cycle to mtheir destination. Both projects aim to increase recreational cycling and walking in the Mullingar area and will involve implementing numerous measures. Bike Shelters and bike parking facilities will be available at strategic points within the town including primary and secondary schools. There will be also Cycle safe, walking and health education within local mcommunities, primary schools and secondary schools.

As part of the overall ‚’Active Travel Mullingar’ project there will also be a dedicated webpage which will provide information on active travel planning to any facility within the ‘Active Travel Mullingar’ project. It will also promote the health benefits of walking and cycling, show bike maintenances tips, CO2 calculators
etc. Work on establishing the currently ongoing.

1. A large resource pack of equipment
2. Resource cards that offer a range of skill development and fun activities
3. Training to assist teachers and childcare practitioners implement the programme

The three key components of the programme are designed to provide easy to understand, and accessible support to give children a fun, but high quality, introduction to sport and physical activity.

Buntús Start is a comphensive child centered physical activity programme for children aged 2-5 years old. It is designed for use in pre-school settings to provide a wide range of learning opportunities for young children to develop their fundamental motor skills, manipulative skills, co-ordination and balancing skills and develop a positive attitude to physical activity.

Buntús Play and Sport complement the games strand of the Physical Education curriculum in primary schools and is offered to all primary schools and special needs schools.  Buntús Play and Sport are designed to give children a fun, but high quality, introduction to sport and physical activity. The programmes help develop fundamental skills such as sending, receiving and travelling with a ball, to engage in game like situations which include running, dodging, chasing and exploiting space.

2010 Club Development Sports Fund

The funding aims to encourage the setup of New Clubs, to continue to support Existing Clubs, to focus on developing quality Coaching resources throughout Westmeath and to encourage all Coaches, Officials and Volunteers to undertake appropriate education and training.

The three funding opportunities that where made available where;

New Clubs – This fund aims to encourage the set-up of new clubs. Priority will be given to minority sports, low participation groups and target groups identified in the WSP Strategy.

Existing Clubs – This fund is to continue our support of existing club in their development through the recruitment of new members or the retention of current members

Coach/Officer Training –This fund focuses on developing quality coaching resources in Westmeath and encouraging all coaches/officials/volunteers to undertake appropriate education and training.

Code of Ethics Training is available in Mullingar and Athlone on various different dates. The dates for Mullingar are Monday 4th December, 6th December and 18th December.

Athlone are 6th November and 4th December.

For information on the above course please contact Westmeath Sports Partnership on 044-93 90208.

Sports First Aid

This course aims to provide participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to implement an effective sports injury prevention programme and give competent first aid to the ill or injured until medical aid arrives in a sporting environment.

On completion of the course the participants will be able to:

• Operate in accordance with the accepted roles and responsibilities of a sports first aider.
• Prepare and implement an injury prevention program.
• Assist with warm-up, stretching and cool down.
• Assist with fluid replacement.
• Follow defined Sports First Aid crisis management strategies.
• Follow defined Sports First Aid immediate injury management strategies.

Training is available in Mullingar and Athlone on various different dates in December.

For information on the courses included please contact Westmeath Sports Partnership on 044-9390208 / info@westmeathsports.ie