Xàbia school kids enjoy a day of sports to mark International Day
One of the intentions of the day was to show that everyone can take part in any sport, regardless of their situation.
Thursday 7th April 2022 – Mike Smith
Source: original article – Carlos López (Xàbia AL DÍA)
The Palau d’Esports Andres Buigues, the football camp, the trinquet and the sports court have hosted this Wednesday the main celebrations at regional level of the Día de l’Esport, a day organized by the Ministry of Education and Sports in collaboration with the Fundación Trinidad Alfonso (Mercadona’s social arm) in order to promote sports among schoolchildren.
In total, some 3,000 schoolchildren from Xàbia from the different schools participated, some 300,000 across the entire Comunidad Valenciana, with activities not only in these sports facilities but also in the educational centres themselves.
The schoolchildren who have participated in the activities in the Freginal sports area have been able to get to know several athletes up close, such as César Sempere, who was at the Rio Olympics, as well as Iván Cano and Héctor Cabrera (Members of the FER Project) and Ainhoa Martínez, athlete and trainer at the Club de Córrer el Garbi de Gandia.
The kids were also been able to try their hands at sports such as karate, beach paddle, handball, volleyball, ultimate, as well as triathlon, rugby, and two adapted sports such as bowling and football, in which schoolchildren have had to shoot penalties with their eyes covered using a ball with bells inside. And it is that one of the intentions of the day was to show that everyone can take part in any sport.
Speaking to Xàbia AL DÍA, the Olympian Cesar Sempere said that days like today “are the excuse to start doing sports” and has underlined the values that sport transmits since those who practice it “know how to work with sacrifice, with moderation and with respect”. Sempere has concluded “sport is a philosophy of life”.
For his part, the mayor, José Chulvi, stressed that celebrating the regional day is a “recognition” of the work of all the sports clubs in the municipality and wanted to highlight the “impulse that is accompanied by the infrastructures” that the local government wants get ahead.
He has also insisted on the value that sport brings “not only for the physical health of schoolchildren but also for their mental health”.
And the project director of the Fundación Trinidad Alfonso, Daniel Olmos, explained that the proposal of the foundation and the regional government was to introduce adapted sports to schoolchildren and explain how there are boys and girls “who have some type of disability, but can still practice sports and can reach very high goals.”
Meanwhile, the director general of Sport, Josep Miquel Moya, has indicated that the educational activities “in which we are participating today are being reproduced in hundreds of Valencian towns and it is something not only healthy, but necessary. The practice of sport also entails the practice of great values such as social inclusion, camaraderie and peace. We are experiencing a humanitarian emergency due to the barbarity of a war and in Valencian schools we are welcoming thousands of children displaced from Ukraine.”
