Dulcie May Moreno reporting for Street Athletics Manchester finals 2008!
12:13 pm Friday, all the local contestants from the folkestone, Hawkinge, Dover and Hythe  area climbed onto the coach in Lidlys car park in Hawkinge to begin the long journey to Manchester, Lidls gave us goodie bags with water sweeties bannanas and apples museli bars ect. And we all began our journey, a few pit stops an the way but we reached the Hostel we were staying at at around 8:30.
Saturday morning, Wilbert the organiser of the event and the other staff took the kids to a massive sports arena in central Manchester at about 10:00 am after an early start and breakfast at 9.
After that we went to the race track in the beautiful central location of Manchester City Centre, trees and grand buildings, a waterfall and the sun was out. The people were also out, long travelled but raring to go, excitement fillled the air and was encouraged by the fantastic sound system and brilliant D.J.
The Kombat Breakers were amazing, so flexible and well rehearsed, really proffesional dancers with attitude. Also the La La Kid performed his song and was interviewed by Darren and sang a touching version of his song about not having a father.Linford and Darren spoke about the event, introduced each other and said their thankyous to everyone involved who helped make this fantastic event possible.
The Media tents were on one side of the screen at the end of the racecourse and whilst we uploaded some film and photos we could watch as see who was winning the races.
The crowd made an enormous noise applauding the competitors and everyone looked like they were really enjoying themselves.

Today we have been at Manchetser, Albert Square for the National Street athletics Final.
There was a wicked turnout and lots of people enjoyed it as even though the six hour long treck here took forever and a day by the end i felt the worth!

It was a hot day which in England is a blessing in itself and the crowd was at the loudest out of any street athletic event’s i have been to.

Performances on stage were at a peek aswell as Performances on the track!

!!!CONGRATULATIONS!!!

To all those who took part and an even bigger applause to those who won their races.

!!!GOOD LUCK!!

To all my peeps who are going to the MAIN FINAL and to those who didnt qualify dont give up!!!

Next time is your time!!!

HERE WE COME FINALS…

Lockin out

(Amber and Maya)

.XX XX.

We enjoyed the day in Manchester - we thought it was a good turn out, we learned a lot, and its been a very good experience for us both. It’s been a nice day to be in Manchester, but it’s been very difficult to talk because of the noise!

Today we have been at the London finals at the Jubilee Gardens, South Bank.
There was a very bad turn out for the Street Athletics Media Crew as they were meant to be six of us but there was only us, but the show must go on and it did!

All the qualified runners from the previous races had come along to compete for a place in Manchester. Unfortunately I didn’t qualify for Manchester but got through to the semi-final. The races were really fast and everyone tried their very best. The weather really didn’t help as it was pouring down with rain and the track was really wet, so lots of falling
occured, but most got up to finish the race in one piece.

The entertainment was at its best with the Kombat breakers doing their fabulous performances, Lemar and Heather Smalls singing in the best of keys and the wonderful 400metre gold medalist at the Beijing olimpics, Christine Ohuruogu was also in attendance.

The talent competition was really good  as there was a kid dancing as good as Michael Jackson, a singer who was really good, who gave a true  message of peace, two dancing groups giving it all they had.

Well done to all the street athletics competitors and a standing ovation to those who got through.

With the back drop of the London eye, we say goodbye, peaceout hope to see you in Manchester and holla back if you like what you see! Please leave a comment!!

Peace!
Maya and Amber Wright!
☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺

Pics:

Videos:

Me and Anthony enjoyed doing Liverpool because we live local and knew almost everyone. We started off the day helping set-up then we began interviewing the young people who was excited about the event, we interviewed young people before the race then after the winners, after this we uploaded them onto the computer and took some pictures we had a fun time, sadly this was our last one but we wish to volunteer for plenty more events with MediaSnackers.

LUKE AND ANTHONY

Today we were at Lillian Baylis Old School, and it was the biggest turn-out for our coverage to date. There were some brilliant talents, from performances the likes of the Kombat Breakers, various dance groups and cheerleading from local children and the Jersey Nets whom the dads seemed to really appreciate…

Mark Lewis-Francis was also there in replacement for Linford Christie with Darren Campbell in his usual role as starter. Also in attendance was the Mayor of Lambeth, other Lambeth reps and several other media crews.

All in all the competition was very fast, and a fab day was had by all in the glorious sunshine!

Have loads of fun and hope you enjoy the pictures and video.

See you at the South Bank…

Peace out!

Amber and Maya x.

Dulcie May Moreno reporting for Street Athletics 2008 in Hackney!!
WOW! What a blindingly sunny day, the heat has been INTENSE!! Some really skilled athletes here today, muscles of steel and stamina off this planet. It was held Outside the New Testament Church, the street was closed off and two white lines were drawn for the start and finish, the DJ played Rnb in the middle of the downs park Road, and there were signs and banners everywhere. There was a wide variation of age groups, and many races took place one after the other, the kids lined up with Linford and Darren to compete against each other. Despite the fact they were competing, there was a great sense of community within the competitors and parents, It was the taking part and the coming together as a community that really mattered to all of them. Of course, the winners were overjoyed. Dog Tags and T shirts for all who took part. Overall, a successful day to be had by all.

Nice one to Robert- who took some pics and even did a short interview for us as we were one man down! He also won his race and is off to Manchester! Well done mate!

Dulcie May Moreno here, reporting for Street Athletics 2008! What a lovely hot day, and the scene at lidls car park in hawkinge was a crowded one! 100 or more kids turned up to run for the event, there was a DJ and some witty presenting from Wilbert the organiser of the event, along with Linford and Darren. So many epic races, and childrens’ faces of the struggle as they crossed the finishing line…

Check out the photos and videos below as we upload them!

H - today we were in Blackburn! We had a good day today, we got good shots, and we interviewed some great people. Check it out…

Anthony and Jordan

Take a look at the videos and photos from the Street Athletics event at the Meadowhall Centre, provided by digital journalists Jordan and Ella…

Hi,
This is the Sony media crew reporting from Leeds! We have had a good day today! We have taken loads of footage. We’ve got lots of videos and photos of todays event. Some people never liked the camera but thats ok because the sunny weather kept us going!! Haha!!

Also there was some people who was not interested and some of the Leeds people were friendly. The talent show was good. We really enjoyed today!

Luke and Anthony

Hey everyone! We enjoyed today, we felt like we really got something out of the day, and it was a great turnout, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Overall, we thought it was an enjoyable day! You can check out our photos and video interviews below…

Jordan and Ella

We travelled from Liverpool to London on the Thursday and stayed over night in a hotel. Then at half 9 Friday morning everybody from street athletics met up in St Pancras where I started my interviews about how and why the young people (who are last year’s winners) were going to Paris, and how they found out about Street Athletics.

When we arrived at Paris we had a chat with young athletes in the “La salons du relais gare Paris est” hotel. After this we took off to our hotel and checked in then headed to Stade de France to watch the athletics. It was great because me and Jordan went to watch Darren Campbell get interviewed on BBC Five Live radio and went sort of backstage if you like, then we went on a tour around France after the athletics on the tour we stopped at the Eiffel Tower which was all lit up at midnight we all had 10 minutes to take photos and do what ever we liked. We then got back on the coach went for a late MacDonald’s, ate that went to bed about 2 o clock and never got up for breakfast.

LUKE DUMBELL and JORDAN CAIN
(Who travelled with the 2007 Street Athletics winners all the way to Paris to watch the Gaz de France Saint Denis Athletics- well done especially to Luke- who combated his nerves to get some great interviews- they will be up asap).

Hello!

The day has been great fun! It’s been a fun experience for all. We went round and got some brilliant pictures! We got to meet some awesome people and I’m sure they were honoured to meet us. Along with the tunes going on in the background the crowd were as enthusiastic as ever, support friends and family! We met some confident people and hopefully some talent of the future, along with Darren Campbell and Linford Christie! On a technical side, the videos and interviews didn’t quite go to plan. A technical ‘error’ stopped us from getting interviews as we had no sound! The microphone was awful! Bobby did try to buy one on the way, but they were all sold out! What a complete joke! However we got to interview some interesting people, only you guys don’t get to see them!! But anyways must mooch now, I hope everyone’s had as much fun as we have!

Shane and Chris!

Some footage of the races- the mic packed in during the last one- sos!

Interviews:

Hiya,

Street Athletics at Kensington today has been soo fun. A great-turn out resulted in great performances and spectacular talents were performed on stage with the Kombat Breakers.

Having competed myself i now understand why the atmosphere is pumped with adrenalinen which i can now say doesn’t calm down the competitors, not expecting to participate meant that i was kitted out in my beautiful NEW salt and pepper shoes, baggy, loose trousers and hair all over the place. LOL how hilarious. Even though my fate was against me today i managed to come 2nd in the heats which means i am in the final.

Finals did not go to plan and i ended up fourth.  A word of advice to all competitors…. it’s not over until you cross that finish line.  Pipped to the finals… Not happy but learnt a very important lesson, its not good coming fourth!  Oh well, never mind, i’ll get over it and good luck to all the lucky ones who’s made it to the South Bank.

We hope to see lots of people at the Lillian Ballis event which we shall be covering next but until then, check out the interviews below if you want to see Darren Campbell dancing  and Linford Christie telling his best jokes, as well as all those who made it down for the races and dance lessons at Freston Road.

Once again, thanks to all who gave their time for interviews and photos, feel free to leave us a message on the comment board.  See you soon.

Peace out!

Amber (didn’t qualify) and Maya Wright.

The day started off really badly but we managed to pull things together, everyone had a great time and by the end of the day everyone pretty much left with smiles on their faces. The performances were all good and we got glimpses of the different types of new talent that will one day be sweeping our nation, all in all i would say the day was a blast as most young participants put it, we had parents down to support and friends to do all the heavy cheering. It was a great day especially considering the fact that it didn’t rain so i guess the heavens were on our side, well congrats to all the winners and everyone that took part, everyone was a winner. Stay tuned for more info from the Haringey Squad!

Brought to you by Yomi & Curtly:

Awesome video of the day:

Thanks to all those who gave us time for photographs and interviews.

We hope to see you all again and look forward to meeting new faces and getting to know you.

Finally, we forgot to say….. I qualified for the finals.  Very very happy.

Maya (I made it to final) and Amber Wright.

Peace out. x

Bobbie (one of the Sony digital journalist trainers) lives in Brum- so she went along and took a few snaps of Birmingham participants who braved the rain!

Hello, Luke and Darren here writing from Norwich… we started heading down at 11 ‘o’ clock from Liverpool, had a nightmare on the motorway (firstly there was a crash and we were in a big traffic queue, secondly we hit even more traffic which had nothing to do with the crash) ans we arrived around 5pm which means we were late. Luckily enough when we got there Darren and Linford weren’t there because their flight got delayed!

We enjoyed the day a lot, and had extremely good fun.

The event went really well today there was lots of cheering. We had a very vibrant crowd of people supporting the runners and dancers.

Interviewing people was really interesting- especially meeting Linford and Darren.

I have learnt that to be a good digital journalist you need to plan beforehand. If I could give a tip to the next journalist it would be to enjoy yourself and plan ahead.

I hope to see you at the next event!

Written by Maya and Amber Wright

Check the pics:

Pre-race Interviews:

Crowd Perspective:

Post-race Interviews: