The brand new Plymouth Life Centre sports complex officially opened to the public today, Saturday March 24. GB Olympic athletes and coaches were there to mark the opening event running demonstrations and taster sessions in the Olympic-sized 50m, 10 lane swimming pool.
Jo Jackson (400m freestyle), David Davies (2008 Olympic Silver Medallist 10K open water), Fran Leighton (GB Women’s Water Polo captain), Kelly-Anne Russell (GB Synchronised Swim Coach) and Rebecca MacEnri (synchronised swimmer) were all involved as TV Sports Presenter Steve Parry (himself an Olympic, Commonwealth and European butterfly swimmer) acted as compere.
The Plymouth Life Centre is managed by Everyone Active in partnership with Plymouth City Council. It is the home training ground of GB divers Tom Daley and Tonia Couch. Both sent their best wishes to visitors by video link they are away competing but are eager to return to use the world-class diving pool and ‘dry dive’ area to prepare for London 2012.
“Plymouth Life Centre is a fantastic venue and the Olympic pool and diving pool are both excellent,” says Tom Daley, holder of two Commonwealth Gold Medals. “I’m honoured to be able to use these facilities for my training and London 2012 preparation but I’m just as pleased to see such superb facilities made available to swimmers and divers of all abilities,” says Daley who specialises in the 10 metre platform event. “I feel really fortunate to have this great new venue here in Plymouth, the Centre will be an important legacy of London 2012,” he believes.
The Centre is also an official pre-Olympic games training camp for elite athletes from Canada and Lithuania, with many other countries showing an interest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBYfUJ_V1SY
Everyone Welcome
The Plymouth Life Centre is not just for elite athletes: its main purpose is to provide affordable community sports activities to the people of Plymouth. Partnering with National Governing Bodies, Everyone Active will be able to offer professional sports coaching in Netball, Climbing, Badminton, Squash and Racketball, Table Tennis, Bowls, Diving and Swimming. This means that players of all abilities can enjoy using the state-of-the-art facilities and receive top class sporting expertise at a low cost.
“We are thrilled to be able to provide the local community with such fantastic facilities,” says Jon Senior, Regional Director, Everyone Active. “It’s great to know we will be helping some of Great Britain’s top sportspeople train for London 2012, while offering those same world class facilities to the public,” he says.
More images to follow …….
