HUNDREDS of active children and adults trialled the facilities at Essex University for its debut family sports day.

It has been nearly a year since the hotly anticipated Essex Sport Arena opened and the open day was a chance to show everyone how wonderful it is.

It was a day of goals, new experiences, family bonding, fitness classes and...just having a go.

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Dave Parry, director of sport at Essex University, was pleased by the turnout and said indoor climbing, karate and futsal were some of the best-loved sports to try.

“There’s still a little bit of a perception that perhaps we’re a closed community but actually, it’s quite the opposite,” he said. 

“We had about 500 people turn up and more than three-quarters of them we’d never seen before.

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“Not only do we have gym memberships available and sports facilities here, we run children’s and adult’s courses and people can play-and-pay when they want to.

“So as well as promoting that we’re open to everyone in the community, we want to help people change their behaviour and give them a nudge at the beginning of the year to get active.

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“Open days like this make people realise how easy it is to do.”

Now, the director’s key focus is to forge links with Colchester residents.