BY CIARAN WOODS
LOCAL sport, and in particular athletics, is set to receive a further boost in the coming weeks as the North's most famous Olympian, Dame Mary Peters, pays a visit to Strabane.
The athlete, who won gold at the 1972 summer games in Munich in the pentathlon and is one of the biggest ambassadors for sport in the North, will make a trip to Strabane on Wednesday June 6 to present pupils from Holy Cross College with certificates for the completion earlier this year of a series of programmes by the Outward Bound organisation, including a trip to Cumbria, of which she is a patron.
At the same time as the visit to Holy Cross, athletes from each of the primary and secondary schools involved in the Strabane extended schools cluster, will be participating in an organised day of sport at the Melvin sports complex, and plans are afoot to try to arrange for the distinguished visitor to at least have a walk around at the venue, and hopefully to address the young participants and to share some of her views of sport with them. It is unclear at this stage whether the whistle-stop tour will become a fully formal visit, primarily due to time constraints.
Holy Cross principal Sean Bradley spoke this week of their pride that Mary Peters is to visit the school, with her presence sure to be an inspiration to all the young people involved, particularly female athletes.
He said, "Our pupils will have the opportunity to speak with Mary about their experiences involved with the Outward Bound projects, which have drawn a very positive response from all those who took part. They'll also hopefully have the chance to hear some of her own sporting stories and about the highlights of her own fantastic career.
"Our own school sports day will have been held the previous week, so we'll be asking Mary to make the special awards presentations for those as well. Our PE department are delighted to have such a high-profile figure coming to promote sport in the school to help us celebrate our achievements, with the added bonus that as a female she's a fantastic role model for young females."
Dame Peters is expected to arrive in Strabane by helicopter, after an application for a helicopter landing at Melvin Park was received and approved by Strabane Council at a meeting earlier this week.
