Posts in category London 2012

London 2012 Olympics Update – Part Five

Mar01
2011

Written by admin

Welcome back to our occasional series about the venues for the various sports for the 2012 London Olympics. As a brief aside and almost unrelated I heard a radio article the other day suggesting that pole-dancing was a legitimate sport and that it might one day feature in the Olympic Games. It was actually likened to gymnastics by the young lady who was going on about the national student pole-dancing championships. Good night out for the lads, yes – sport, no.

Anyway back to business and we’re getting on to some of the smaller venues now. The area for us this post is the River Zone and the first venue is the ExCel Arena (you have to write ExCel like that or they send you a letter). Despite the silly name thus is a well-established sports venue and conference centre in the Docklands area. It will have five sports arenas with seating capacity ranging from 6,000 – 10,000 and will feature boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo, table-tennis, weight-lifting and wrestling. For the paralympics it will host boccia, judo, powerlifting, table-tennis, volleyball and wheelchair fencing.

Foreground - ExCel, Background - O2 Arena

Greenwich Park is our next port of call today- it’s a shame I’m not here to write about the history of the park right now because it has a long and impressive one, including being the site of the Royal Observatory and the home of the Prime Meridian – yes ladies and gentlemen, Time starts here. It’s large area of royal parkland mean it will feature olympic/paralympic equestrian events, and bits of the modern pentathlon (the horsey bits, one would assume).

Not far away from Greenwich Park is the O² Arena, renamed for the Olympics the North Greenwich Arena. Once again you could write a book about the history of this venue – it started life as The Millenium Dome before a change of leaseholder and usage in 2001 preceded the building of a stadium and entertainment complex. It’s is now the world’s busiest arena and hosts, among other things, sporting events and concerts.

For the Olympics it will be the gymnastics venue and will also host basketball finals for the olympics and paralympics.

Tagged 2012, excel arena, greenwich, london, meridian, north greenwich arena, o2 arena, olympics

London 2012 Olympics Update – Part Four

Feb18
2011

Written by admin

Well we’re getting through them now, although there are in fact 26 venues (plus 5 football grounds) and we’ve covered a mere 6 while I’ve mostly waffled through the articles. There are four zones – Olympic, River, Central and Outside London. In the Olympic Zone we’re talked about the Velodrome, the Olympic Stadium, the Basketball Arena and the Aquatics Centre. So today we’ll check out other venues in this zone.

Eton Manor

First up is Eton Manor, an existing Leisure Centre in Leyton in East London. It’s going to be used as a training venue for the swimmers but most importantly it’s the venue for the Paralympic tennis. It doesn’t sound like a big site but it is, the whole area covers 27 acres and will house several temporary 50m training pools as well as 13 tennis courts. The main court will be observed by 4500 of the 10000 available seats at the site. It’s legacy value? It will house the Olympic Hockey Centre after the games have finished.

Handball Arena

Handball will be played at the snappily titled Handball Arena. This relatively small venue will seat around 7000 people and will also house the Paralympic Goalball competition as well as various events which comprise the modern pentathlon. Following the Olympics it will be the only indoor arena remaining in the Olympic Zone and will become a leisure centre for community use.

The Hockey Centre is next on our list. It will be based in Hackney within the Olympic Zone and it will have a surprisingly big seating capacity at its two on site pitches – 15000 for one and 5000 for the other. The venue will also host the Paralympic seven-a-side and five-a-side competitions. As mentioned above, following the games the hockey will head up the road to Eton Manor but 5000 seats and a training pitch will still remain. Last month Leyton Orient FC expressed an interest in moving to this arena after the games. The jokes almost write themselves but they could probably get rid of another 3000 of those seats. Sorry O’s fans.

Tagged 2012, goalball, handball, hockey, london olympics, paralympic, pentathlon, Tennis, venues

London 2012 Olympics Update – Part Three

Feb13
2011

Written by admin

With each post about the London Olympics, the event itself draws marginally closer and to avoid getting into an Indian Commonwealth-games-like farrago with not much ready just days before the event, I’ll write about some more venues before time runs out. What’s that you say? It’s still more than a year away! Well it might be but time passes faster than anyone can possibly imagine and one day you wake up, it’s the opening ceremony and you still haven’t described the Paralympic accommodation.

So what’s next with the venues? We’ll move away from London this time and talk

Hadleigh Farm & Castle

firstly about the mountain biking location. Given that England possesses some of the finest mountain scenery and mountain biking trails anywhere it’s a little surprising that it’s being held not far from London near the Essex town of Hadleigh. I’m sure it’s a fine venue and being in my home county is a bonus but surely it wouldn’t have been too much of a logistical challenge to head for the Peak District, or Northumberland, or the Yorkshire Moors.

So there it is, and at least it’s close to London, along with the rejected choice – Weald Country Park (where I myself have raced). The race will be set around the grounds of Hadleigh Castle which is almost 800 years old so there’s certainly some historical perspective there.

Lee Valley Whitewater Rafting

Not far away from Hadleigh and just to the North of London is the Lee Valley Whitewater Centre. This was the first venue at which construction was completed and is an indicator of how far ahead of schedule the the London Olympics is. It’s on the site of an existing canoeing facility – the Broxbourne Canoe Centre – and cost £31 million. It’s already in use as a local and national facility and will be run as such by the local council following the event.

It will seat around 12000 during the games but most of these will be removed after the event and the site will be integrated back into the 10,000 acre Lee Valley Park.

Posted in Sport News - Tagged 2012 olympics, canoeing, hadleigh, lee valley, legacy, mountain biking, whitewater

Posts in category London 2012

London 2012 Olympics Update – Part Five

London 2012 Olympics Update – Part Four

London 2012 Olympics Update – Part Three

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