Pupils Right on Track

Staff and pupils from Saint Paul’s Catholic High School in visited the Manchester Velodrome, Britain’s National Cycling Centre. The Velodrome is Britain’s primary indoor Olympic cycle track and is regarded as one of the world’s finest and fastest board tracks.

The aim of the day was to give pupils the opportunity to view and try out the world-class facilities as part of their current unit of study focused on the Sports Industry. The pupils will then need to complete a piece of work explaining the organisation and funding of cycling in the UK.

The pupils were given a taster session explaining how to ride on the track and key cycling skills which would help them with this. The pupils had some time to practice then they completed a timed lap, their fastest time was 24 seconds (by Isaac Griffin), which at the time seemed fast but is nothing compared to the Olympic team who train here who have a time of 10.3 seconds.

“It was an amazing opportunity for our pupils to be riding on the same track as the Great Britain Cycling Team,” explained Mr Darren Mawn, a PE teacher at Saint Paul’s. “I am hoping that the visit to these state-of-the-art facilities will encourage our pupils to take up cycling as a hobby.”

“The Velodrome is an amazing facility right here in our city,” said , Head Teacher

Wiktor Daron. ““Our pupils were able to cycle on a track where actual world championships have been held. I hope that this will help them to develop their skills and inspire them to want to achieve even more.”