By Denise Sharon Cahill, Western Suburbs Weekly
UWA Little Athletics Club members competed against athletes from Shanghai last Saturday as part of a 12-day Friendship Games event.
This is the first of a 10-year partnership between Perth and Shanghai.
The program, which started last Friday, brought more than 300 Perth athletes from various sports together, including basketball, swimming and track and field, to train and compete against 50 Shanghai junior athletics.
RV Sports chief executive Andrew Vlahov said he came up with the concept 18 months ago.
“It started as a basketball exchange and expanded,” Vlahov said.
“It’s a fantastic youth sports event for Perth; it really brings good sports partnerships between the countries.”
Vlahov said the visiting athletes left China in -2 degrees and came over to 40-plus degree heat, so “we adjusted training sessions to be close to the water because the kids love the beach and we make sure they are hydrated”.
Vlahov said that so far the young Australians were better at basketball but Shanghai athletes dominated at swimming.
“Shanghai’s kids are coached to be event-specific but this program encourages them to try different events, like Shanghai’s Long Yu, who specialises in long jump but ran the 400m for the first time,” he said.
Junior Perth athletes will compete in Shanghai in 2013 and Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia will be invited to take part from 2014.