Supporters of the SPAR Lancashire Youth Games gathered on Friday, January 28 at Worden Sports College in Leyland to officially mark the start of this year's events.
Representatives from Lancashire Sports Partnership, the county's School Sport Partnership and sponsors, SPAR, gathered at the college, where the first ever mascot for the Games was revealed.
The Leaping Lancashire Lion, designed by 10-year-old Matthew Fox from Ashton-on-Ribble, will attend all the SPAR Lancashire Youth Games county finals, starting with the first event, Tag Rugby, on March 9.
Matthew, who attended the launch event, won the chance to design the official mascot in late 2010 after being chosen out of hundreds of entries from school pupils across the county.
The SPAR Lancashire Youth Games is the leading youth sports programme in the county. The 2011 programme has been expanded to include 112 district finals and nine county finals, including a special schools' swimming gala and the high-profile SPAR Lancashire Disability Youth Games.
The district and county events will bring together more than 10,000 pupils from hundreds of primary schools across 14 local authority districts. The county finals represent the pinnacle of school sport in the county, with talented young competitors having fought off strong competition to represent their district at county level.
The sport-specific district qualifiers and county finals events are organised by a network of dedicated competition managers from the Lancashire School Sports Partnership and Lancashire Sport Partnership.
Adrian Leather, chief executive of Lancashire Sport Partnership, said: "The Youth Games are a great way for children to get involved in sport, especially with 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics on the horizon.
"There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that each and every event runs smoothly and that everyone involved gets the most out of it.
"We encourage every school and pupil across Lancashire to get involved and it was great to see so much support from those involved at the launch on Friday.
Dominic Hall, director at James Hall & Co, SPAR distributor for the north of England and one of Lancashire's largest employers, said: "We're delighted to be sponsoring the Lancashire Youth Games for the fifth year running and we can't wait to see the reaction to our mascot, the Leaping Lancashire Lion at the county finals.
"Our sponsorship is an important part of our commitment to promoting community sport, healthy eating and physical activity across the North of England."