London 2012 Pre-Games Training Camp Guide Announcement

Eleven sporting facilities from Suffolk will feature in the London Organising Committee Pre-Games Training Camp Guide it has been announced.

The assessment process has amounted to an audit of high quality facilities throughout the UK and has shown that there are many excellent sporting facilities available both in Suffolk and throughout the UK.

Those from the county included in the guide are Alton Water Sports Centre in Stutton, Bentwaters Park near Woodbridge, Culford School and West Suffolk Athletics Arena in Bury St Edmunds, Thetford Forest, Felixstowe Lawn Tennis Club, Ipswich Gymnastics Centre, Ipswich Town Football Club, Northgate Sports Centre in Ipswich, Otley College and Waveney Gymnastics Centre in Lowestoft. Between them they hope to attract international teams looking for training facilities in canoeing, road cycling, archery, tennis, mountain biking, rhythm and artistic gymnastics, football, athletics, fencing and equestrianism.

65 venues from the East of England’s six counties have made it in the Guide, to be published at the Beijing Games. It contains high quality elite sporting facilities right across the UK which 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 which will help NOCs / NPCs decide where to train. 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: “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. 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. The new website will continue to be an asset to keep an up-to-date log of the elite facilities we have across the UK.”

Source: Rising to the Challenge Suffolk