Kilner impressed with youngsters in Aberdeenshire

Ben Kilner was speaking to Gerard Meagher on day three of Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week 2011

BANK OF Scotland National School Sport Week has two huge benefits in my eyes - firstly to promote an active lifestyle and secondly to inspire the youth of today to take up sport.

LIKELY LADS: Ben Kilner, left, joins forces with Euan Burton, right, for Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week

Encouraging school children to take up sport can have such a huge impact in terms of both and so that's why events like this are so important. 

There have been all sorts of things going on here and it's important to have a variety of sporting activities because different things appeal to different people.

And at the end of the day this is all about inclusion and increasing the amount of participation in sport among schoolchildren - because after all they are the stars of tomorrow.

And that's where the inspiration aspect comes in. Every school child will have some sporting role model or hero to look up to and to be inspired by and when they see events like these and come along they can really be inspired.

We've been at the Mearns Academy with a host of events on offer ranging from basketball to volleyball.

More than 500 pupils took part during the day's activities which involve some well-known sports and some less well-known fitness activities such as hip-hop dancing.

Then you have the added fact that the London 2012 Olympics are just around the corner and the impact that will have on Great Britain as a country on the whole has to be capitalised on.

Being a winter Olympian myself, obviously I won't be involved directly next year but I still think the Games will have an enormous effect on the country and sports participation.

As far as my winter sports' season is concerned, now that summer is upon us the focus is very much on hard training and I'm already looking forward to the next Winter Olympics in Sochi in Russia in 2014.

Last season was a little bit up and down for me because I was coming off the high of the Winter Olympic season and then I got injured at just the wrong time. I separated my shoulder in January.

But before that I spent more time focusing on training rather than competitions because I want to add more tricks to my routines and the only way to do that is through practice.

If I want to improve and start moving up the rankings at the major competitions then that's what I need to do. My focus is already on Sochi 2014 and building towards that and my training is already geared towards the Olympics.

I didn't compete at any World Cups but I did win the British Championships having missed out the year before so there were things to be happy about last year.

So it was a mixed bag you could say but when you sample and Olympics and you have the goal of reaching another one, it really gives you the drive to succeed.

Hopefully some of these youngsters will have the same goals and will go on and succeed in the future.

Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week, in partnership with sport  scotland, uses London 2012 to inspire children to achieve a personal best in Olympic and Paralympic sports.  To help your local school carry the Olympic Flame in the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay, or to win tickets, visit: www.bankofscotland.co.uk/nationalschoolsportweek