Around 1,600 elite school aged athletes will compete in the Games, which will be held at six competition venues around Cardiff, Newport and Swansea from today until Sunday.

It is the fourth time the event has been held and will again replicate a major multi-sport event with an opening and closing ceremony plus an athlete’s village.

The opening ceremony takes place tonight at The Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay.

Alongside the new sport of track cycling, competition will take place in hockey, badminton, judo, volleyball, athletics, fencing, gymnastics, swimming and table tennis, with disability events in athletics, swimming and table tennis.

Grainger said: "It is very important that youngsters get used to competing in multi-sport events.

"Athletes that go on and compete at international level obviously have great physical talent but they don’t necessarily have the experience of competing at a major sports event and it is mental inexperience that could cost them a chance of doing well.

"That is why the UK School Games are such a good thing.

"The youngsters will get used to things like staying in dormitories with other athletes and even though one athlete may be a sprinter and will only run about 11 second over the whole event, they will experience what it is like to have a multitude of other sports going on and be able to cheer on other athletes."

Grainger said that having 1,600 participants involved in the UK School Games is ideal.

He said: "I don’t think we need many more participants at these Games.

"We obviously need to make the event a big multi-sport event but we also need to create an atmosphere where the event has a buzz so that those who aren’t here really want to work hard to get here.

"We need to make this a prestige event that only top elite school athletes are able to compete in."
 
Cyclist Jamie Staff, a member of the squad that won a gold medal the men's team sprint in Beijing, said: "This event is great because it helps athletes get used to a side of sport that they don’t know well.

"The physical stuff is really the easy bit.

"It's things like getting used to the media and obligations off the track that are often the hardest thing to get used to as a professional athlete and the UK School Games will give these guys the chance to get that invaluable experience."

UK School ambassador and Athens 2004 4x100 metres relay gold medallist Darren Campbell (pictured) agreed that the UK School Games will be highly beneficial for the elite teenage athletes that compete in them.

He said: "These Games are great because they do a fantastic job of replicating a major multi-event Games.

"If these kids go on to compete at international events in the future, they will not be daunted by the experience as they would have encountered it before."

With the London 2012 Olympics moving ever closer, the YST is focused on creating provisions for the next generation of athletes who will be inspired by the Games and may well represent go on to represent Britain in the future.

Grainger said: "Although the Olympics are taking place in London, Britain is so small that the buzz of anticipation can be felt throughout the Isles.

"London will be an unbelievable Games and we must make sure that we have the provisions and coaches in place for all those children who will be inspired to take up sport after they witness the London 2012 Olympics."

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