More than 177,000 young people have taken part in Sport Unlimited, a programme aiming to get more youngsters playing sport outside of school.

The £36m Sport Unlimited scheme targets children aged between five and 19 who aren not naturally attracted to sport, and are not yet playing regular sport in the community.

The initiative aims to get kids active by giving them the freedom to choose the sports on offer. Thousands of activities have already been delivered across a wide range of traditional and less well-known sports including football, climbing, skiing, kayaking and parkour.

Over the next three years, Sport Unlimited aims to inspire and help 900,000 young people to do more sport - playing a role in delivering a lasting participation legacy from London 2012.

Sport England launched the programme nationally last autumn after a successful trial in 12 areas. Early indications suggest that a third of the young people who took part in Sport Unlimited have gone on to join local sports clubs or continue their participation.

Richard Lewis, Sport England's Chairman, said: "Finding your sport and developing a love for it at a young age is an important step towards continuing participation into adulthood.

"Sport Unlimited is providing high-quality and exciting new sporting opportunities to hundreds of thousands of young people and is showing that sport really has something for everyone."