The money will fund the creation of world-leading training and rehabilitation facilities at Bisham Abbey to improve athletes’ agility, strength and conditioning. It will also pay for state-of-the-art indoor rowing and canoeing machines. The second part of the investment is for improvements and maintenance works at the 2000m rowing lake used by the Olympic rowing squads. The facilities will be used mainly by rowers based at Caversham Lake, GB canoeing and England Hockey.
Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre, run by Sport England, is one of the cornerstones of Team GB’s record success in Beijing. 25 of Team GBs medal-winning athletes train at the centres.
David Tanner, Performance Manager for the GB Rowing Team which won six Olympic medals, said:
"Winning Olympic medals isn't just about those six or so minutes on the water in the final, it is about years of putting in the hard yards -- often in the gym at Bisham Abbey.
"Sport England's new investment will help our athletes’ training, recovery and rehabilitation as the team knuckles down to the challenge of getting in even better shape for London 2012.
"The facilities will also help the next generation of rowers who'll be pushing the current team hard for places in four years' time."
Jennie Price, Sport England Chief Executive said:
“Today’s announcement demonstrates our determination to do everything we can to help talented athletes achieve success at the highest level.
“Sport England is working closely with national governing bodies of sport, UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport to develop world-leading training facilities for our top athletes as they prepare for the Games in 2012.
“As we unearth and nurture more talented young athletes, they too will benefit from training alongside our Olympians and Paralympians in state-of-the facilities.”
The funding package is a major milestone in the delivery of Sport England’s new strategy aimed at building a world leading community sport system.
Other facilities benefiting from the investment include (with estimated costs):
New archery range at Lilleshall. Indoor range refurbishments with new permanent technical (video analysis) area, fixed speed cameras and improved access for Paralympic archers. The outdoor range will be relocated adjacent to the indoor range with a new covered technical area. The outdoor range will also be realigned to face north to mirror the conditions archers will face at the Olympics. Currently 89 elite archers use the facility, of which 25 are disabled archers. (£1,000,000).
New all weather pitches at Lilleshall. Developing two new floodlit artificial pitches - one for elite hockey use. The hockey pitch will replicate the surface of the London 2012 venue. England Hockey intends to use Lilleshall for talent development of gifted young players through junior camps. (£1,725,000).
All works are due to be completed by 31 March 2009.
While most of the facilities are primarily designed to benefit world class elite athletes, they will also be used by others at earlier stages of the talent development pathway as well as for general community use.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Sport England is a non-departmental public body and National Lottery distributor. We are committed to creating a world-leading community sports development system and increasing participation in sport. Sport England’s annual budget (lottery and exchequer) is c£250m.
Sport England’s new strategy was launched on June 10th and commits Sport England to deliver on a series of demanding targets by 2012/13:
• one million people doing more sport
• a 25% reduction in the number of 16-year-olds who drop out of five key sports
• improved talent development systems in at least 25 sports
• a measurable increase in people’s satisfaction with their experience of sport
• a major contribution to the delivery of the five hour sports offer for children and young people.
For more details about Sport England’s National Centres please go to http://www.sportengland.org/about_nc
For more information, please contact the communications team: Peter Dickinson on 020 7273 1800 or Alex Russell on 0207 275 1866.
