Diary
Visit to India 27-30 July 2010
I was lucky enough to invited to India by the British Government as part of a delegation including renowned UK business leaders, chief executives and sports stars. India has become a force to reckon with on the internationaL platform, and our government wants to make it clear that Britain has a lot to offer its growing economy as well as wanting to strengthen relations between the two countries and create jobs in the UK.
My first visit to India was when I promoted the Mumbai Marathon in 2007, and experienced the hustle and bustle of the crowds, loved the people and culture. I returned this time as part of a bigger mission and my experience was no less fascinating.
We (members of the delegation) had a packed schedule of launches, openings, speeches and networking events. For me (along with Lord Seb Coe and Sir Steve Redgrave), a lot of my time was focused on sport, education and inspiration. We visited projects where I met wonderful kids from the slums that had been transformered by one particular initiative call Magic Bus where I joined in the activities with them… it was great fun! We went to Springdales School in New Delhi and where impressed with their progress of a 2012 Games initiative.
I attended the Asian All-Stars Athletics Meet in Delhi on 29 July together with Rt.Hon. Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport and Seb Coe (Chairman of the London 2010 Organising Committee).
The meeting was an important test event in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium before the athletics takes place there during the Commonwealth Games in October. 250 athletes from 17 countries took part in the two day event.
As President of Commonwealth Games England I was asked to present medals to the top three in the women’s 100m hurdles, the first event on the newly laid synthetic track. You can see me pictured here with gold medallist Anastassiya Soprunova of Kazahstan, silver medallist Gayathri Govindharaj of India and bronze medallist Anastasiya Proshkina of Uzbekistan.
I also had the opportunity to meet officials involved in organising the Commonwealth Games, including Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the Delhi Organising Committee. The progress on the venues is good and I am looking forward to returning in October for the Games when as well as carrying out my role as CGE President I will be leading an educational camp for a group of my ‘On Camp with Kelly’ athletes to help them prepare for competing at a major multi-sport event in the future.
2010 commonwealth Games in Delhi: 3 – 14 October 2010
Visit http://www.weareengland.org for more details
More photos of my visit…
Watch out for my full July diary update coming soon!
Kelly x