Fifty ‘Young Ambassadors’ from six Secondary Schools recently attended Sport Pembrokeshire Young Ambassador training and two successful local athletes were on hand to provide inspiration for the future.

‘Young Ambassadors’ is a youth leadership movement aimed at developing future leaders through sport, physical activity and play.

Ambassadors will use their role to inspire, influence, lead, and mentor within and across education and communities, to connect and support society to be healthy and active.

Pupils had the opportunity to take part in three workshops hosted at Haverfordwest High VC School – first aid, inclusion awareness and action planning.

The group was joined by Jordan Hart, professional badminton player who delivered an inspiring motivational talk on leadership, and Bleddyn Gibbs, multi Gold Medal winning Special Olympic power lifter.

Bleddyn Gibbs from Milford Haven, won four Gold medals at the Special Olympics World Games last year in Berlin.

Bleddyn, who represents Special Olympics West Wales, competed in the powerlifting event for Team GB and won each category and overall Gold.

Following in his father Steffan's footsteps by taking up weightlifting, the inspirational teenager who has Down’s syndrome wrote an emotional letter to Sport Wales during lockdown about missing his gym friends, but he set his sights on competing at the Special Olympics.

The need for him to shield and ongoing lockdowns throughout the pandemic meant that Bleddyn was unable attend his usual strength training gym.

“I want to be very strong like The Rock again by doing bench press, clean and jerk, hanging knee raises and doing the multi-gym,” wrote Bleddyn in his letter.

The Special Olympics was his first major international event, and the support he got from the audience and the atmosphere was incredible.

Bleddyn also picked up a Disability Sport Award at the Sport Pembrokeshire Awards held towards the end of last year at Folly Farm.

As well as powerlifting, Bleddyn is also the captain of the Pembrokeshire Vikings Mixed ability rugby.

‘Young Ambassadors’ are valued members of the volunteer workforce and are currently involved in supporting events and festivals, and extra-curricular provision within their schools, primary schools and community settings.

This includes supporting Sport Pembrokeshire’s free multisport sessions in Pembroke, Haverfordwest, Milford and Fishguard.

Rominy Colville, Active Young People Co-ordinator, said: “The importance of the Young Ambassador programme to empower and inspire young people to become leaders through sport cannot be over-stated.

“They will have the power to help encourage peers to become hooked on sport, hopefully for life, with all the benefits to health and well-being that brings.

“Thank you to our sponsor Valero for supporting these amazing young people on their sport leadership pathway.”

Any pupils or schools interested in finding out more about the Young Ambassador programme should contact [email protected]