Attitude shift needed for sport to grow

On Wednesday it confirmed that £527,000 was added to its economy by the Super League Triathlon event this summer.

The event attracted more than 10,000 spectators to watch the action live on the waterfront over two days, with the broadcast coverage seen by five million viewers.

There were 3,800 extra nights of visitors staying, more than double for the inaugural event last year.

To make it all happen, its States has made £250,000 available between 2018 and 2022.

It is a sound investment and one that sports fans and those in the tourism sector in Guernsey can only look upon with envy.

Even if the money was made available for attracting anything similar to this island, the question remains whether people would willingly accept the disruption that would be caused by a weekend’s-worth of road closures.

This is all something that should be grappled with by Education, Sport & Culture as it develops the strategy for sport.

It is also something that should be on the minds of those drawing up the seafront strategy and the tourism strategy, as well as those changing the island’s infrastructure.

There is clearly a growing interest in multi-sport and other events such as open water swimming and ultra running that needs to be embraced and built on, but at the moment there are barriers to how far it can go that need to be overcome.

It is not something that should be just thought of in financial terms either.

Major sporting events are inspirational, they can be the catalyst to creating an ever more active population, with all the preventative physical and mental health benefits that brings.

What sporting clubs and groups already achieve is impressive given the restrictions.

But Guernsey has a unique natural environment that creates the perfect stage for many events that could be taken to the next level, that people want to take to the next level, if only the right conditions can be created and attitudes shifted.