Olympic gold medallist, Jonathan Edwards and Jack Lemley, Chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority, have visited the East Midlands as part of the London 2012 road show.

The road show is taking place from 6 July - 27 July 2006, and a specially commissioned double decker bus is visiting 50 locations across the UK carrying top names from London 2012, the government and sport.

It aims to remind local communities, businesses and other agencies about the opportunities that London 2012 will bring for the whole country, bringing with them the latest news on progress in the last 12 months and future plans.

2012 Tour bus at Loughborough University

The road show visited the region on 11th July, its second stop outside London.

The first stop was Leicester’s Saffron Lane Sports Centre that Jonathan Edwards, a Board member of London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic games, officially re-opened the Centre following a £1.4million refurbishment.

The development, which will provide excellent training facilities for 2012 hopefuls, includes a new £400,000 synthetic running track, of which Sport England has given £160,000 via the Community Athletics Refurbishment Programme.

Edwards offered encouragement to a huge crowd of children taking part in mini athletics events before declaring the facilities open. He said:

"If there hadn't been a triple-jump pit at school I wouldn't be here with you today. This facility will give that opportunity to many more people."

A variety of music and dance performances added to a superb atmosphere at the event.

Cultural activity at Saffron Lane Sports Centre, Leicester

Elite athletes and coaches were featured at the next stop, Loughborough University, where the road show party toured the Sport England lottery funded High Performance Athletics Centre, one of the facilities in the English Institute of Sport network.

As well as the elite athletes Loughborough University has a community programme and over 100 school children were participating in multi-sport activities around the University’s athletics track.

Chris Earle Director of Sport at Loughborough University said:

“Loughborough is known as the home of performance sport, with many of the country’s international sports men and women having studied and trained here. We’re also heavily involved in grass-roots sport and see the forthcoming Olympics as an opportunity to inspire and encourage young people to take part in healthy sporting activity. We are delighted to be welcoming the Roadshow to the University and to be able to show the delegates the breadth of our activities."

Jonathan Edwards with Loughborough athletes school children

Next stop was the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham to focus on physical activity, sports medicine and volunteering.

The Q-active programme is one of the first dedicated programmes within a UK hospital devoted to removing barriers to participation in exercise and improving the health and wellbeing of staff. The project has received £300,000 from Active England – an investment programme from Sport England and Big Lottery Fund.

Activities included Nordic walking and a wellness check-up for Jonathon Edwards. Also Q-Activator Michael Woodward gave a motivational speech on how being a volunteer had changed his life.

Prof Mark Batt, Q-Active Director, said:

“The Trust is delighted that the 2012 Roadshow is visiting Q-Active - particularly appropriate as the Trust is also a leading player in the new medical speciality of Sport and Exercise Medicine.  We are looking forward to showing the delegation how we are setting a good example by encouraging staff to improve their health and wellbeing. The Games are going to be a huge inspiration to people to take part and get active which is what we’re about. We also rely on a lot of volunteers who help to keep Q-Active up and running.”


Finally the bus arrived in Derby for a business reception at Pride Park hosted by the East Midlands Development Agency and East Midlands Business Forum.

The reception interacted with over 200 businesses interested in commercial opportunities and showed them how to be a part of the London 2012 experience.

Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic games, said: “We hope this Road show will help people to appreciate just how inspirational the Games can be and the relevance they can have for them and their local communities.”