YOUNGSTERS were left in awe of a GB hockey star who sat in on one of their sessions.

GB hockey’s Kirsty Mackay provided inspiration to youngsters in Hove at a Sportivate project - one of the key initiatives to create a sporting legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Sportivate is a £56 million National Lottery funded initiative to give 11 to 25-year-olds who aren’t particularly sporty six to eight weeks’ free coaching in a new sport and then helps them find low costs ways to continue to play.

Kirsty is part of the England and Great Britain training squad, and was part of the England team at the 2014 World Championships in Holland recently.

She visited the Sportivate Brighton and Hove Hockey Club Hot Stars in her capacity as a Sport England Sporting Champion.

Having already attended a session in Blatchington Mill School on Sunday and will return to the Hove school for another session on July 6.

The visits are funded by Active Sussex, who lead the Sportivate programme on behalf of Sport England in Sussex.

Kirsty is excited to return to Blatch so that he can help the young people participating raise their own aspirations.

She said: “I’m really looking forward to this exciting Sportivate hockey project in Hove.

“I can't wait to help the participants get fully involved in hockey and tell them about my own experience of proudly representing Britain in the sport.

“Sportivate is a fantastic way of getting young people into sport and that is something I am really passionate about.

“I believe that as a Sport England Sporting Champion, I can inspire everyone in attendance to raise their own aspirations of what they can achieve and motivate them to be the very best versions of themselves that they can be.”

Jayne Molyneux, the strategic lead for Youth at Sport England, said: “It's great to see Kirsty helping inspire young people taking part in Sportivate to carry on participating in a sport they may have never tried before.

“Our Sportivate programme is all about listening to young people and putting on taster sessions in a sport of their choice to help them make the step into community sport and set them on the path to creating a sporting habit which will set them up for life.”