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Our Bury St Edmunds Festival of Sport was ‘best yet’...

The organisers of this year’s Our Bury St Edmunds Festival of Sport have hailed it as their best yet after a week packed full of different activities. During half term week there were opportunities to try taster sessions of many different sports in and around Bury St Edmunds as well as new competitive events including the town’s first marathon.

The Festival, the third to be organised by Our Bury St Edmunds, coincided with the first ever St Eds Running Festival which took place from the Skyliner Sports Centre on Moreton Hall. It saw over 1,000 people register for a marathon, half marathon, 10k and fun run supported by Unique Bars.

Chief Executive of Our Bury St Edmunds, Mark Cordell said: “This year’s Festival was a great success. As it coincided with half-term it meant we could offer opportunities to all age groups. We had six different free to enter public participation events in Charter Square and I’d especially like to thank the arc for supporting this as well as the representatives of the different clubs that organised them.

“It was really noticeable how well supported our local sports clubs and groups are by people who give up their own time to organise events and activities. There’s no doubt that these volunteers are the unsung heroes of our grass roots sport.”

For those not looking to lace up their trainers themselves, the Festival of Sport also offered an opportunity to relax over a lunch with a sporting legend – while helping to support some of the county’s brightest sporting stars of the future. A SportsAid event saw former cricketer Geoff Miller OBE, recognised as one of the best sporting speakers around, entertain diners at the Athenaeum. The lunch, which was supported by Abbeycroft Leisure and Lovewell Blake also saw SportsAid grants presented to two local teenagers, athlete Joshua Hulse and basketball player Esther Little.

The Our Bury St Edmunds Festival of Sport is promoted by a partnership led by the Business Improvement District (BID) organisation Our Bury St Edmunds and including Abbeycroft Leisure and St Edmundsbury Borough and Suffolk County Councils. .