WI Ladies become Wii Fit champions

Womens Institute members from around Cornwall came together last month to compete against each other during a virtual sports championship.

Earlier in the year, the Cornish Federation of Women’s Institute (CFWI) members jumped into the news headlines as they drew their nunchucks and geared into action on the Nintendo Wii.

Last month saw all their innovative exercise efforts come into fruition as they took part in a WI Wii Championship, organised by the Cornwall Sports Partnership (CSP). It was held at the WI Headquarters at Chy Noweth and saw members from various groups across the county competing.

Nan Collier, Media Officer for the CFWI, said: “Health and fitness is of course one of our core aims and this is an ideal resource for our members to participate in sport in a fun way. The ladies who took part in the Championship thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and we hope that the enthusiasm generated will encourage more of our members to take part in the future.”

“The championship was a fantastic success and great fun for all. It was really rewarding for us to see the WI ladies enjoying themselves so much – and to see a little pink in their cheeks!” said Chris Hunkin from the CSP, who runs the Wii Project.

The CSP, funded by Sport England, saw the console as the perfect opportunity to engage with community groups, in particular the over 50s, and devised resource cards to accompany the Wii: ‘We devised the cards to compliment the console, using heart rate monitors and stability balls, and turning the Wii into something that has a structured physical benefit to the user. Initially, kids loved it and so we started taking it out to the community, workplace and in to day care centres as a way of encouraging adults to get involved in virtual sport,” Chris continued.

The CSP are continuing to run Wii sessions with a number of WIs and community groups. If your group would like to try a taster session, please contact Chris Hunkin on 01872 323344 or 07973 813549 / chunkin@cornwall.gov.uk