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Sport England has invested £10 million of Lottery funding into the state of the art redevelopment of Bisham Abbey’s 43-acre site to create an excellent foundation for elite and community sporting achievement.
The redevelopment has been designed according to the requirements of the sporting bodies, which predominantly use the centre. Judo and hockey, in particular, have worked with Sport England in all four stages of Bisham Abbey’s redevelopment to create unrivalled training facilities, which enable them to achieve their performance training targets. The new elements include: a dedicated judo training hall and video analysis unit; a water-based synthetic hockey pitch; two squash courts; 11 tennis courts, including four indoor; one gymnasium and one strength and conditioning hall; and a nine-hole golf course. Changing rooms, sauna and steam rooms are also featured, along with shared administrative offices for the principal governing bodies.
In total, more than 20 sports are able to use the facility with athletes training alongside a number of World, European and Commonwealth champions.
Richard Caborn, Minister for Sport and Tourism, said:
“Bisham is precisely the sort of state-of-the-art sport centre we need to see in the UK. Designed with our best sports stars in mind, the first class facilities will give them every chance of reaching the top.
“With young people from the area training alongside our finest athletes, Bisham will inspire the next generation too. Let’s hope the facility will help prepare them for an Olympics in London in 2012.”
Commenting on the opening, Patrick Carter, Chair of Sport England, said:
“We are delighted that HRH The Princess Royal has officially opened Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre today.
“Bisham personifies Sport England’s new holistic approach to sport, ensuring that our elite athletes have access to the very best training facilities – on the basis of their requirements and their terms – and that exemplary facilities are also available to the local community. This re-development, with all sporting bodies working together and some of them based there, is already breeding a sense of success for all sports.
“Bisham is an important part of our strategy in helping England to become an active and successful sporting nation”
Bisham is predominantly used by elite athletes from judo, hockey, football, rugby union, tennis and rowing. Kate Howey (Judo Olympic Silver Medallist), Katherine Grainger (Rowing Olympic Gold Medallist) and Craig Fallon (Judo Silver World Medallist) have trained at Bisham Abbey. Around 1,500 community members use the site for approximately 1,000 hours per week.
Bisham is home to the National Judo Academy, a full-time centre of excellence that currently houses 19 elite judo players. The GB men’s and women’s hockey teams are preparing for the Athens Olympics at Bisham. England Under 21s Rugby and England’s world ranking Sevens’ squad have also recently used the facility as a regular training venue. The England football team has trained at Bisham and, most recently, the Under 21s team has used Bisham as a training base
Notes to Editors
For further information, please contact the Sport England Press Office on 020 7273 1591 or 07748 845 692.
Sport England provides the strategic lead for sport in this country and is a distributor of lottery funds to sport.
Quotes for Sports Governing Bodies which worked with Sport England on Bisham’s £10-million redevelopment:
Judo:
“
British Judo has been involved since the inception of this project and all of our requirements have
been taken on board by Sport England. They have fully appreciated the complexities of the sport, taking
into account the physical dimensions as well as the supporting facilities that create the Olympic judo
player.
“ The building is a reflection of what judo has always dreamed of having: sprung
floors, a light spacious area, which are all conducive to players enjoying training and developing their
skills. The facility will enable those players present and future to fully develop their talents and
hopefully bring success to the sport and Britain.
“ In addition, the wealth of support
facilities and personnel will create the perfect environment for current and future champions.”
Mike
Beecher, British Judo Operations Manager
“We welcome the
additional use as it allows the community to get access to the world class facilities and hopefully
it will inspire younger visitors to learn more about our sport. I think it is also good that the community
see our athletes in training and get more understanding of what it takes to be a top level athlete.”
Udo
Quellmalz, British Judo Performance Director
Hockey:
“
Bisham Abbey is absolutely integral to what we do. It offers a great location, excellent facilities,
on site accommodation and the ability for our top athletes to visit their coach, physio etc. It’s on
their doorstep and has always been our first choice as a training venue.
“ I think it’s
a huge benefit that we can share these facilities with other sports. I believe that to be a hockey athlete
is a lifestyle choice and when our athletes train in the gym with leading athletes from rowing and judo,
they can see that they are not the only ones having to make the lifestyle choice of becoming an athlete.
They gain a lot of inspiration from judo and rowing athletes at Bisham, since they include world champions.
Our hockey players believe they can learn a lot from them.”
Robyn Kuhl, World Class Hockey
High Performance Manager
Rugby:
“
Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre is the spiritual home of England Rugby. The first Rugby Football
Union Coaching courses and team training sessions were held at Bisham during the 1970s and 1980s. The
new facilities at Bisham offer great opportunities for England teams, coaches, referees and other support
staff to utilise the sports medicine, sports science and fitness elements embodied in the new buildings.”
Alan
Black, RFU Community Rugby Manager
Tennis:
“
I think Sport England has done a fantastic job with the new facilities from the point of view of the
young players who will continue to use the indoor and outdoor facilities as part of their performance
training programmes.
“ They have also been very good with the local community, because
it’s very important for members of the community to be able to train alongside elite athletes. I like
the idea of all the sports working together at the new centre because I feel we can learn a lot from
the others.”
Richard Mole, Bisham Abbey Tennis School
Factsheet:
Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre
Bisham Abbey National Sports
Centre Facility Details
Judo fact sheet
Hockey
fact sheet
Tennis fact sheet
Rugby
Union fact sheet
Football fact sheet
Squash
fact sheet
Golf fact sheet
Taekwondo
fact sheet
Rowing fact sheet
Click here to download images of Bisham Abbey 1 , 2 , 3 and architecture plan
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