A survey has shown that more than 90% of universities and colleges in the UK are expecting to be involved in London 2012, and Canterbury Christ Church University is one of them.
Following the designation of London as the host for the 2012 Olympics in July 2005, they applied the next year to be an Olympic training centre and became one of the 70 institutions around the country that were designated as a pre-Olympic training camp.
At the time of their allocation, they were given basketball, fencing, judo and badminton as their options. Five other camps are in Canterbury. They are Polo Farm (hockey), Canterbury Cricket club (archery), St Anselm girls’ school (gymnastics), Canterbury Academy (athletics) and the University of Kent (indoor sports)
Now Christ Church is working hard to find a nation to come train in their facilities under the guidance of Kent Sport Leisure and Olympics.
“We have been trying to recruit a nation for the last two years now. The Russian judo team came to visit the sport centre but unfortunately they have not take the offer as yet.
“We have been trying to recruit a nation for the last two years now. The Russian judo team came to visit the sport centre but unfortunately they have not take the offer as yet.
“We are hopeful someone will come and train here in 2011 and again in 2012. We have a close relationship with three countries from Eastern and Mediterranean Europe and I think e have to look at those nation as potential. Ideally we would like to have a nation this year,” said Andrew Balsdon, the director of sport at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Training in England before the Olympics would be a good opportunity for countries but as Andrew explains, it would be “great” for the University itself.
“Having a nation to train at Christ Church here would be great and it would help student and staff to get involved in the whole London 2012 Olympics experience,” he added.
To try to temp nation to do so, Lord Coe offered £25,000 to any nation that come to train in UK facilities before the Olympics.
The Jamaican and American sprinting team have already chosen their pre-Olympic camp and will be training at Birmingham.
So could we see the ‘Dream Team’ in Canterbury?
“I think they are more likely to make connection with clubs playing in our National Basketball League and the facilities would have be more specialised for them even though we have excellent facilities here at Christ Church when it comes to basketball,” he said
However, the city could host more than one nation. “With the six pre-Olympic training camp in Canterbury, we could see ourselves with more than one Olympic nation coming to Canterbury,” Andrew concluded.
Watch the video of the full interview below:
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