Bristol Passed European City Of Sport Baton At Ashton Gate

Monday, March 27th 2017

Bristol received the European City of Sport baton from Stoke-on-Trent during the half-time interval of Bristol Rugby’s Aviva Premiership clash with Gloucester at Ashton Gate on Friday night

Cllr Terry Follows, Cabinet member for greener city, development and leisure at Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Councillor Anthony Munday, Lord Mayor for the city, passed the baton to Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol and Cllr Jeff Lovell, Bristol Lord Mayor to symbolise the switch in title between the two cities.

Bristol is the UK’s only European City of Sport for 2017 and Lord Mayor, Cllr Jeff Lovell said: “It is an honour to take part in this symbolic ceremony on behalf of the city of Bristol.

“I’d like to congratulate Stoke-on-Trent on their successful year as a European City of Sport for 2016. It has been a pleasure to see some of the spectacular ceremonies they’ve managed to put on.

“I look forward to seeing what Bristol is able to do with its award over the months to come.”

“We want to use our year as a European City of Sport to help promote our city as a place for international sport on a global level and to make more of the sporting achievements of our residents."

Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol

Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, said: “I would like to congratulate Stoke-on-Trent on their successful year as a European City of Sport.

“It’s been inspiring to watch their ceremonies and videos from their year. Here in Bristol, we have a few things planned ourselves.

“We want to use our year as a European City of Sport to help promote our city as a place for international sport on a global level and to make more of the sporting achievements of our residents.

“Sport and regular exercise is a great way to improve our health and general wellbeing.

“By bringing more sport to the city and better promoting the work of our dedicated communities, I hope we will be able to inspire more people than ever before to take part in sport and we might even see some of our younger generations of Bristolians competing at the highest level.

“We have already held two sport gatherings, with clubs and groups from around the city, to start a conversation about how we can make Bristol’s sporting profile the best it can be.

“By the end of this year I hope we will have reached people from all around the city and started the ball rolling to improve everyone’s access.”

Information about what else is going on in Bristol as part of our year as European City of Sport is on the council’s website www.bristolcityofsport17.com or on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/bristolcityofsport17