Inner-City Games to mark conclusion of third season

The third season of the Greater Las Vegas Inner-City Games is over.

National Inner-City Games Chairman Arnold Schwartzenegger will host a closing celebration from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the Cashman Field Complex from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The ceremony, which is expected to draw about 4,500 youths, will feature music by Public Announcement, Wild Orchid, five area high school marching bands and the Las Vegas Academy Pop Choir.

Featured guests will include World Boxing Council 147-pound champion Oscar De La Hoya, the local dance troupe Culture Shock and several local dignitaries.

Co-chairs of the local Inner-City Games are Elaine Wynn and County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates.

Saturday's ceremony will honor more than 2,000 volunteers and 8,500 children between the ages of 7 and 17 who participated in eight competitive events over a six-month period, beginning in late March and ending in September.

Jodi Gutstein, marketing coordinator for the games, said values, such as respect for your opponent, were stressed during all of this year's events, which included tennis, volleyball, track and field, basketball, swimming, martial arts, soccer and hip-hop dance.

Educational and cultural competition are also part of the games, Gutstein noted.

Each of more than 60 sponsors contributed between $5,000 and $10,000 in funds or in-kind services to the games.

Registration for the 1999 season will be in January and February.

Gutstein said the games are held in four-week blocks, with participants spending the first three weeks learning the skills of the sport and then a week in competition.

A dozen cities now host the Inner-City Games, which started in Los Angeles in 1991.

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