Adamsdown Liberal Democrat Focus Team

The Olympics may be currently taking place in Beijing, but that won’t stop Cardiff hosting its very own sporting spectacle this bank holiday weekend, as the Olympic Sport of Beach Volleyball makes an appearance at the city’s Mermaid Quay Harbour Festival.
The Dodge Urban Beach Tour bounces along to South Wales for three days of fast paced action from 23rd – 25th August 2008.
It’s the final stop on the UK-wide Tour, which has also visited Milton Keynes, Glasgow, Portsmouth and Birmingham over the past two months, in order to showcase the sport and get young people involved in the build up to the 2012 London Olympics.

To recreate the action and atmosphere which has been in abundance at Chaoyang Park in Beijing, over 200 tonnes of sand will be used to create a beach court at Roald Dahl Plass, surrounded by an arena for spectators.

The bank holiday action will also see the Barry Island tournament take place, where Barry Island Beach Volleyball club members will compete against each other on the beach court to earn their bragging rights.
Presenting the event will be popular TV presenter Nigel Clarke, from CBBC’s Sportsround and GMTV’s Toonattik. Nigel will be entertaining spectators throughout the elite action, and will be giving away hundreds of Dodge Urban Beach Tour beach balls.

Challenging for the Dodge Urban Beach Tour title will be last year’s winning male and female pairings of Jody Gooding with Steve Grotowski and Melissa Coutts with Angie Clarke. Also making an appearance is Jake Sheaf – Britain’s rising star and entrant at the World U21 Championship, alongside his brother Luke.

Councillor Nigel Howells Executive Member for Sports, Leisure and Culture said: “We are delighted to welcome back this exciting tour which has proved to be a great success in previous years. I am sure this year’s will be even more successful and I’m expecting a great beach festival atmosphere across the court over the three days. With the Olympics currently taking place in Beijing and therefore greater awareness of the sport, we are expecting thousands to descend on Roald Dahl Plass for the bank holiday weekend.”
After the Tour’s climax at Cardiff, attention will switch to Brighton and the SWATCH FIVB Junior World Championships in September, which are taking place in the UK for the very first time.

For more information about this year’s fixtures and events contact 0191 222 0440 or visit www.urbanbeachtour.co.uk

Pirates on Tall Ships; a Continental Market to tickle your taste buds; Live Volleyball and
activities on the water. It can only mean one, thing - it’s time for the Mermaid Quay
Cardiff Harbour Festival in Cardiff Bay!
This family favourite returns to Cardiff Bay on August Bank Holiday weekend, and this year is really not to be missed. The Festival provides a wide range of daily nautical activities and entertainment from 23 – 25th August.

This year, the ever popular Ruth and the Matthew Tall ships will be on site all weekend and this will be joined by the SV Tangora and two Bristol Channel Cutters on the pontoons in the Inner Harbour. Climb aboard these vessels for a just £1 to gain a fascinating insight into life on the open sea!

Throughout the weekend there will be a series of displays around the waters edge. Each day people will be invited to come along and for a small charge try sailing and canoeing on the water thanks to Adventure Cardiff. Also, the Viper boats will be competing around a circuit in the Inner Harbour speeding against the clock in a series of time trials each day of the Harbour Festival weekend. In addition there will be daily street entertainment, with five beach huts each carrying its own show with a twist! It could be a comical fortune teller or tattooist…who knows? Come along to find out for yourself! There will also be a giant sand pit located in the Bay. This supervised children’s play area will have buckets and spades, toys and plastic dumper trucks for those of all ages to enjoy!

On Sunday and Monday the Newfoundland Dogs will amaze with their strength and agility in
retrieval demonstrations and the RNLI will be providing a dynamic rescue display on the water – not to be missed! Also, the royal artillery parachute team will be demonstrating their skills in the air and on the water.

The pirates take over in the Norwegian Church Arts Centre, with arts and craft workshops for big kids of all ages from 11am – 3pm on Sunday. Everyone is invited to take part in the hotly contested best dressed pirate competition, which will be judged at 4.45pm that day with a family prize for the winning pirate!

The Harbour Festival will also play host to the inaugural Welsh Open Beach Volleyball
Championships! Volleyball takes two forms at the Olympics in 2012 - the indoor game played by teams of six, and beach volleyball, which is played in pairs. Building on the success from last year’s competition, the Mermaid Quay Cardiff Harbour Festival is again hosting this fantastic sport which will also coincide with the Olympic handover from Beijing to the UK.
The Dodge Urban Beach Tour with its professional competitors will be on the sand on Bank
Holiday Monday, and the Women’s GB Team hopefuls for 2012 will be there on Sunday, but
visitors and residents to the city will also be able to get involved with a two day knock out event for amateur competitors from across the region on the Saturday and Sunday.

The three days of maritime entertainment also will include traditional sea shanty singers, as well as street theatre and live bands. Musical entertainment will be provided by a wide range of bands including Cuban Jazz from the Buena Risca Social Club on Saturday, Ska from Kingsize on Sunday and Swing with Tricity Vogue on Monday!

From 11 – 6pm each day, the traditional Continental Market will set out its stalls of tasty produce in Roald Dahl Plass - showcasing mouth watering fresh food from Germany, Holland, France, Morocco and Ireland. You can exercise your wallet at the well stocked market featuring an array of stalls, to tickle and tempt your taste buds!

Councillor Nigel Howells, Executive Member for Sport, Leisure & Culture said,
“A great Summer of entertainment has been planned and arranged in Cardiff Bay, throughout 2008, with the vast majority of events available free of charge. This summer has been no exception, and it is down to the hard work and commitment of the Council and the Harbour Authority that visitors and residents have been able to enjoy such a varied calendar, with the Mermaid Quay Harbour Festival proving itself as a particular family favourite year on year!”

For more details log onto www.cardiff-festivals.com and www.cardiffharbour.com

Cardiff athletes have continued to excel at the Beijing Olympics adding to the gold medal haul for Team GB.
Cyclist Geraint Thomas, rower Tom James and road race cyclist Nicole Cooke all have won gold in Beijing - with all three having strong Cardiff connections.

Thomas, 22, went to Whitchurch High School and along with Cooke used to be a member of Maindy Leisure Centre’s cycling team, the Maindy Flyers. Cooke stormed to victory to claim Team GB’s first gold medal of the games just over a week ago and Thomas was part of the four-strong Great Britain men’s pursuit team who destroyed Denmark to win gold and set a new world record.

The two Olympians used to train at the cycle track in Cardiff, and have helped the club to inspire the next generation of cycling enthusiasts.

And Cardiff-born rower Tom James has made it a trio of gold medals for the city with his success in the men’s coxless fours at the weekend.

Councillor Nigel Howells, Executive Member for Sport Leisure and Culture, said: "The contribution of athletes with connections to Cardiff in this Olympic Games has made everyone in the city so proud.
“On behalf of Cardiff Council I would like to offer my congratulations to Tom, Geraint and Nicole. They are true Welsh sporting icons and I hope their gold medals will go onto inspire youngsters in Cardiff to try and emulate their success.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to wish the remaining Welsh competitors in the
Olympics, along with everyone in Team GB, all the best for their events.”

Cardiff has been chosen to represent the UK as a European City of Sport for 2009.

The Welsh capital was awarded the title following a two day visit by judges from the European Capitals of Sport Association (ACES).

The judges were shown around the city by members of Sport.Cardiff, inspecting sporting facilities across the city and the wide range of programmes on offer.

The title means the city now ranks as a major centre for sporting excellence and good practice, with Cardiff representing the UK in a European-wide network of premier sporting cities.

As part of its term as 2009 European City of Sport UK, Cardiff will host the UK School Games.

The five main objectives of ACES are enjoyment in exercise, willingness to achieve, sense of community, learning fair play and improvement of health. All the judges felt these objectives were all met by the city and the Sport.Cardiff team.

ACES president, Gianfrancesco Luptelli, said: “The inspection team from ACES were impressed by Cardiff's commitment to sport for all through extensive sports development schemes and inclusion pricing policy to attract maximum usage from your citizens.

"The development work going on in schools to promote health, fitness and sports for young people is also something your city can be proud of. Most of all we were impressed by the commitment, enthusiasm and passion shown by all the staff involved in the delivery of your sports services - without them nothing can be achieved.""

He added: "We also noted the considerable amount of capital expenditure that the council and its partners have invested in the city and are delighted that further investments are planned in the future."

Councillor Nigel Howells, Executive Member for Sport Leisure and Culture, said: "It has long been acknowledged that Cardiff is now recognised on the world stage as a first class destination for sporting events – but what this award demonstrates is the incredible hard work that goes on in the city promoting sport and ensuring people have access to a great variety of sporting schemes and programmes.

"Cardiff has made a significant investment in development officers, coaches, volunteers and Partnerships and this award recognises the investments Cardiff has made in sport and the effort that has been made to encourage participation from all communities."

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