Veteran Paralympian at UEL inspires young to sport

Kay Atwal, Chief Reporter Saturday, October 13, 2012
3:00 PM

A veteran Paralympian visited an east London university to inspire young people as part of a special sports programme.

Tim Prendergast, who hails from New Zealand, has an impressive tally of one gold medal and two silver medals to his name. Despite clocking a personal best time at this summer’s 800M T13 final to finish fifth, Tim showed no sign of post-Games fatigue when he visited the £21million SportsDock facility at the University of East London for a Sportivate wheelchair basketball session

Sportivate, which started in September, is offering a number of free sports courses for 14-25 year olds. As part of the eight week programme, people will be able to try out a variety of sports for free including paralympic sport, badminton, football, judo, cardio tennis, gymnastics and volleyball.

Speaking to UEL, Tim said: “It is great to be part of something that is engaging people through sport. I have been into a number of schools following the London 2012 Games and they are still buzzing, so it is very important to try and harness that enthusiasm. This is a really good scheme and will hopefully give people the chance to try either an Olympic or Paralympic sport.”

Tim Prendergast is part of Sporting Champions, which is a Sport England initiative bringing world-class athletes face-to-face with young people to inspire and motivate them

To book a place on a Sportivate, contact 020 8223 6888 or visit SportsDock reception at University Way, Silvertown.