David Ball and Keith Lane (from the Isle of Wight Island Games Association) have done us proud and bring home great news from Rhodes this week … The Isle of Wight has suceeded in winning their bid to host the 2011 Island Games.
Beating off stiff competition from Bermuda, the IW team were overjoyed to hear the decision, made at the Annual General Meeting of the Island Games Association, which took place in Rhodes last Saturday.
The IW team gave a “dynamic presentation, including a video message from Lord Coe, Chairman of London 2012, who endorsed the Isle of Wight bid as a key milestone on the road to the Olympics”.
So now we’ve won the bid, the next stage is to start preparing the plans and infrastructure for the Games with the IW Council who have put aside a budget of £500,000 to support the games which take place during June and July 2011.
Chairman of the Isle of Wight Council, Cllr Charles Chapman said “I’d like to thank all the people who worked so hard on this bid to bring the games back here, in particular David Ball and Keith Lane. And I would like to extend the challenge of the 2011 Games to the young athletes of the Island as a goal to work towards, so that when the games come to the Island, Gold will be left behind.â€?
David Ball, Chairman of the Isle of Wight Island Games Association, who presented the successful bid, said: “The meeting gave a clear preference for our bid, and we are delighted to receive such a strong vote of confidence. It is now our task to put together a first class games to show the Isle of Wight off to the world and demonstrate our sporting commitment.”
This is really positive news for the island, and as Dave and Charlie say, it’s something for all our kids to work towards. Brilliant news.
