Sports club numbers rocket in Black Country after Olympics

Applications continue to flood in to groups as budding athletes are inspired to recreate the success of Great Britain's athletes at the Olympics. And some clubs are even drawing up plans to expand to accommodate their growing roster of members. Dudley and Stourbridge Harriers Athletics Club currently has more than 100 names on its waiting list, including 80 youngsters.

The club was inundated with calls from people interested in trying out disciplines ranging from hurdles to long distance running after the Olympics and demand has continued ever since.

Secretary Barbara Shepherd said the club, which holds two sessions a week at Brierley Hill's Dell Stadium, would like to expand but did not want to increase fees.

She added: "We are absolutely full at the moment – people ask why we can't just get more coaches but they are just volunteers so we have to get them qualified but the courses can be expensive."

Wolverhampton and Bilston Athletics Club has taken on 13 new coaches in recent weeks after numbers swelled to nearly 500.

Bosses are looking to apply for grants to fund a possible refurbishment and expansion of the club's facilities at Aldersley Leisure Village.

Chairman Colin Thompson said: "A lot of people are using the club to improve their fitness but we want to get more people who want to compete."

Tipton Harriers, based at Tipton Sports Academy in Wednesbury Oak Road, now has more than 400 members, with the youth section growing to around 80 members.

General secretary Marg Cherrington said: "I think we would obviously like to expand but we will have to look at where it will be possible."

The Cycling Touring Club, Walsall, said numbers had risen about 15 per cent to more than 300, with some of their groups seeing numbers double.

Committee member Ken Scott-Clegg said: "The Olympics definitely had an effect but since then people have been joining who enjoy sport for the sake of it, without necessarily wanting to compete."

The Earls Gymnastics Club in Halesowen, which bronze medal winner Kristian Thomas, from Wednesfield, uses every week, was set to build a new base at the former Wheel Spin go-karting track in Dudley Road but the deal fell through at the 11th hour.

It has nearly 400 youngsters on the waiting list as the current premises at the Earls High School in Furnace Lane are too small to cater for them all.