NEW OPENING
The opportunity this facility offers for grassroots
runners, swimmers and cyclists to train alongside top
athletes is exciting and inspiring
REACHING OUT and over-60s has encouraged these
Securing the funding for a landmark groups, with 10 times more swimmers
centre, integrating an existing build- than the numbers seen at Victoria Swim-
ing with a super-modern extension and ming Pool, an outdated city pool which
keeping the centre running smoothly has now closed down. The centre’s mem-
through an 18-month construction bership has doubled since March with
period has been a tough challenge. the new gym attracting much interest
However, the hard work is far from from the community. There has been Inset pic left to right: Mark Woolnough,
over, now the team has to make sure such an uptake on the GP and stroke re- Portsmouth City Council, Matthew Roberts,
the centre meets the expectations of ferrals that additional funding is being Parkwood, Hannah Bladen, Sports England
the council and Sport England, to cater sought to cope with the demand. regional director, Danny Churcher, Park-
for the whole spectrum of abilities and The scheduling of the swimming pool wood contract manager and Katy Sexton
reach out to people in the area who is a great example of how the centre
don’t take part in sport. can cater for grassroots up to the elite. Churcher says with 70 countries on
“We’ve been given various participa- Swimming lessons are available for ev- the lookout for venues in the south
tion targets to meet, with the main eryone from toddlers up and one of east, a great deal of interest is antici-
emphasis on the 50+, youth and dis- the UK’s biggest clubs, the Portsmouth pated. Columbia and Malawi are already
abled markets,” says Churcher. “We Northsea Swimming Club uses it daily. interested in using it as a pre-Games
undergo the national benchmarking Olympic swimmer and former gold med- training venue. Malawi is even consider-
survey on an annual basis and the objec- allist at the World Championships, Katy ing bringing over some of its younger
tive is to get into the upper quartile for Sexton, is a member and the club also competitors two years early so they can
participation of those target groups.” has a number of swimmers pushing for be educated at Portsmouth University.
Partnerships and a strong focus on the Olympic squad. Becoming an Olympic training venue is
sports development are the tools Park- prestigious and good for PR, however,
wood is using to achieve this. “We’re OLYMPIC PREPARATIONS Churcher acknowledges this will also
working with partners around the city,” The opportunity this facility offers for require a balancing act in terms of oper-
says Churcher. “We’ve linked in with the grassroots runners, swimmers and cy- ation. It might be exciting for the public
primary care trusts, GP and stroke refer- clists to train alongside top athletes is to rub shoulders with Olympic competi-
ral programmes and linked up with the inspiring and expected to be taken up a tors, but the novelty might wear off if
Community Improvement Partnership, notch in the run up to the London 2012 they don’t get the chance to work out.
which has an allocation of funding to Olympics. The Mountbatten Centre is The Mountbatten Centre has aimed
target low income families. We are also in the catalogue of pre-Games training high and now has to meet those tar-
linking in with the city council’s sports venues for swimming, cycling, athletics, gets, but the ingredients are right, so
development team, disability officer badminton, table tennis and gymnastics, hopefully it will be an example of how a
and disability forums.” as the Gymnastics Centre of Excellence, centre really can involve everyone in the
So far the results have been encour- which opened in February 2008, is also pleasures of sports participation, what-
aging. Free swimming for the under-16s on the Mountbatten site. ever their ability. ●
22 Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital Issue 3 2009 © cybertrek 2009
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