Top Northamptonshire sporting facilities to be included in London 2012 Training Guide
Six of Northamptonshire’s top sporting venues will feature in the London Organising Committee Pre-Games Training Camp Guide, it was revealed today.
This assessment process has amounted to an audit of facilities throughout the UK and has shown that there are many excellent sporting facilities available across all of the nations and regions.
They are:
Corby Swimming Pool Complex
Arena Sports @ Kettering Conference Centre
Moulton College
Northants Basketball Centre
Rockingham Triangle Stadium
Rushden and Diamonds Football Club
The Guide will be published at the Beijing Games and will give teams and individual athletes a great selection of venues from which they can choose to prepare for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Guide will be circulated to all National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and National Paralympic Committees (NPCs). These organisations will then decide where they base themselves or where to send individual athletes to prepare and acclimatise for London 2012.
Extensive details of the facilities will appear on a dedicated website showcasing the quality and variety of options throughout the UK. The national tourism agency, Visit Britain, is developing this new website with LOCOG and will bring its experience of marketing destinations and tourism products to international audiences.
The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) is also able to offer a financial award of up to £25,000 to NOCs/NPCs to help encourage teams to base themselves in the UK. LOCOG has an allocation from its privately raised budget for this process and believes this will be an incentive for NOCs / NPCs to base themselves in the UK.
Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee, commented: “The process we have been through shows a great spread of high quality facilities throughout the UK that can be used by elite level athletes and the online website can continue to be used after the Games to locate sporting facilities. We said that we wanted the London Games to be for athletes, and the facilities listed in this Guide will really help overseas athletes prepare well. It also provides a great opportunity for towns throughout the UK to get involved in our plans.”
Tessa Jowell, Olympics Minister, said: “It is a real testament to the strength and diversity of our sporting infrastructure that so many facilities have met the strict criteria to be included in this elite training Guide. And his is a real opportunity for places across the UK to capitalise on the opportunities that hosting 2012 offers. But, make no mistake, there are no guarantees just by making it into the Guide. There will be fierce competition to host foreign teams, and now it is for every nation and region, every venue, to sell itself internationally.”
Jeff Moore, Chief Executive East Midlands Development Agency and Nations and Regions Group Member for the East Midlands said: “We are delighted that many of our regional facilities will be included in LOCOG’s guide. We can offer venues right across the East Midlands from world renowned, iconic venues such as Trent Bridge in Nottingham through to fantastic community facilities such as Braunstone Leisure Centre in Leicester. In Loughborough University we are proud to have one of the very best sports training facilities in the world. We see the hosting of teams as a real opportunity to bring the Games to the people of the East Midlands and we know we have a range of sites that will be attractive to competing nations.”
Tim Garfield, Regional Director of Sport England East Midlands said: “The guide highlights a number of great facilities that Sport England has invested in through National Lottery and exchequer funding, such as Moulton College and Rockingham Triangle Stadium
We have worked hard to create a backbone of high quality sports facilities across the East Midlands which are now preparing to host athletes from across the world in preparation for the London 2012 Games.”
Facilities in the Guide range from well known major sporting hubs, universities and schools, community facilities, and sport specific facilities. A full list of the facilities from the East Midlands that appear in the Guide is published by in the “Note to Editors”. As well as having the obvious advantage of having similar climactic conditions to Games time conditions, other technical criteria were examined such as: the ability to offer high quality sports training facilities, experience of hosting elite teams, comfortable but affordable accommodation, the ability to offer appropriate catering, good transport links, access to a good hospital, and good sports science facilities.
Note to Editors
The list of successful Northamptonshire facilities is as above. Facilities were invited to apply in July 2006. The assessment process was carried out during 2007.
For information on facilities in Northamptonshire please contact Chris Holmes, Acting Director, Northamptonshire Sport on 01604 237071 or cholmes@northamptonshire.gov.uk.
For information on facilities in the East Midlands please contact Nick King, PR and Media Manager, East Midlands Development Agency on 0115 988 8375 or nickking@emd.org.uk.