30 Wickford Extra, Autumn 2011 Basildon Sporting Village


VISIT: Delegates from the Japanese swimming and gymnastics teams visited the Sporting Village during its construction.


OPENED in May this year,Basildon’s Sporting Village has won many plaudits -as well as international acclaim. An impressive 1,500 people signed up to


join the centrebeforeitactually opened and in 2012, the Japanese Olympic swimming squad will use the centreasits pre-Games training camp next year. AMemorandum of Understanding has


been signed between the Japanese Swimming Federation, Basildon Council and SLM Ltd, which operates the Sporting Village under the ‘Everyone Active’ brand. The Japanese team hailed the Sporting


Village for its ‘fantastic facilities. Basildon Council leader,Tony Ball, said:


“This is areal vote of confidence in the international-sized pool, which all members of the community can use. “It will be exciting to watch these Olympic athletes train, and then use the same facili- ties. Ihope it will inspirethe next generation of Basildon swimmers.” The agreement will see the Japanese swimming team using the swimming pool during certain periods between July 20 and 31, 2012.


areas during this time -such as the gym and fitness suite and studios. Japanese athletes and their coaches will


visit Basildon in 2011 and in early 2012 in the run-up to the Games, which start on July 27 and finish August 12. The £38m Sporting Village is also ahit


The team is also talking about using other


with the locals and boasts awealth of faci- ities, including: ■ Aregional gym centrewith Olympic stan- dardequipment. ■ An eight-court sports hall that can cater for the likes of badminton and basketball. ■ Arevamped Basildon Athletic track, with seating for 750 spectators. ■ Twomulti-purpose studios for exercise classes. ■ Twomeeting/lecturerooms. ■ Acreche and cafe. ■ Six outdoor floodlit five-a-side football pitches. ■ An outdoor artificial football/hockey pitch. ■ Tenoutdoor grass football pitches. ■ 12 outdoor netball courts. ■ Twocricket pitches.


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