A WORKING party is to be set up to improve the existing Women in Sport strategy. Following three productive meetings between the new Guernsey Sports Commission and 24 different sports, one major action point to arise from the concerns of the sports is the need to investigate why there is a drop in numbers in the 16-24 age group, particularly among women.

‘The national trend seems to be that they go away from the sport but they do go back later. There is a drop off and we are just trying to ascertain how big the problem is in Guernsey,’ said Graham Chester, sports development manager.

‘We will be setting up a working party with people who have raised those issues to look into it and come up with ways to address it.

‘One idea might be to repeat the open day for women’s sports of a few years ago. It proved popular and perhaps that is something we could do again.’

Chester added that although some women moved away from particular sports, it does not mean they had stopped doing physical exercise.

‘The gut instinct, especially at the early end of the 16-24 age group, is that a lot go into the gym rather than continue doing other sports, which is fine. That is the instinct and now we are really looking to find out if that is correct.

‘Then we have to look at the question of why they are turned off doing other sports and would rather go to the gym on their own.

‘At least people are aware now that they have got to do something [in terms of exercise],’ he said.

Other reasons for the decline include people going travelling or studies taking priority.

But sports such as netball are looking for ways to keep people involved.

‘There is just a whole bank of players missing and we are not unique,’ said Gill Queripel, Nerine coach and former Guernsey Netball Association president.

‘We probably have them up to about 18 or 19 and then we are missing them up to around the late 20s. It is a big gap and we have got to do something to encourage them back.’

The commission also plans to investigate the problem of youngsters playing too much and too many sports.