Published: Thursday, 31st July, 2008 2:40pm

Beijing games will be curtain-raiser for West Fife Olympics!

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Volleyball is one of the sports featured in the Sport For All festival.

SOME of the greatest athletes in the world will be vying for Olympic gold next month – a 'decent preview' for an annual West Fife extravaganza!

Dunfermline and West Fife sports council"s secretary, Noel Grimshaw, joked that the games would act as a warm-up for their Sport For All festival.

'The Olympics finish just before so it"ll act as a decent preview for our event,' he smiled.

His tongue was firmly in cheek but the sporting festival is big news in West Fife with a packed programme of courses, competitions, displays and "come and try" events.

It starts off with hockey but also includes swimming, tennis, golf, bowls, pool, water polo, volleyball, football, athletics, orienteering, fencing and much more.

Events will take place at community use schools as well as various leisure centres and facilities everywhere from Rosyth and Pitreavie to Aberdour and Blairhall.

Put together by the local clubs in the area, there"s also events such as synchronised swimming, riding for the disabled, ju jitsu and shinty.

Mr Grimshaw said, 'There are other areas in Scotland that have sports festivals but not as extensive as ours.

'I was surprised myself how many sports are included and we have a number of new ones such as American football and basketball.

'It"s a reflection on the success of the festival that the clubs come back year after year to participate and show more people what they do.'

He continued, 'We want to encourage youngsters to try different sports, we don"t just want people interested in running to look solely at the athletics events.

'They may find they also enjoy shinty, water polo or karate.

'It"s about giving it a try.

'They"re only limited by their own abilities and opportunities.'

Popular events such as the Ernie Letley"s seven-a-side football, the St Margaret"s Ladies team golf tournament and the Forth swim all return.

In addition, the sports council is delighted the Stewarts Scottish National Championships, promoted by scottishathletics, will be held in Fife and part of the festival for the first time.

Designed to boost participation and enjoyment of sport, it"s also hoped that the festival – which has been going for more than 20 years – will benefit from armchair viewers inspired by events such as Euro 2008 and Wimbledon.

'It"s Olympics year so the focus is already on sport and it"s also one of the reasons the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust were willing to become involved,' Mr Grimshaw said.

'It"s not just Beijing either as we"ve just had Wimbledon and we"re not that far away from the Commonwealth Games which a lot of our young athletes will be aiming for.

'These are the type of events that get youngsters interested in sport and we want to show them how they can pursue that interest in this area.

'We"re very keen to create links between the local clubs to help sustain them and to get young people hooked on a particular sport.'

Mr Grimshaw said talented athletes could make a career out of sport but pointed out that participation was about much more than winning.

'When you see reports about Fife kids being the most obese in Scotland, that"s not my experience especially as there"s so much going on and so many active groups,' he said.

'We also have one of the most successful leisure centres in the Carnegie so it really makes you wonder if the figures are true for Dunfermline and West Fife.

'But it"s not just for health reasons, there are all sorts of lessons such as building relationships which can last a lifetime.'

The Dunfermline and West Fife sports council"s Sport For All festival runs from Saturday 30th August to Sunday 7th September.