Olympic champ Denise to open Judo centre

The heptathlete, who was crowned champion at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, will cut the ribbon, officially opening the centre, on Tuesday, November 12, at the University’s Walsall Campus.

The opening will take place from 2pm to 4pm at the campus and will take in a tour of the new facility as well as other parts of the campus, including accommodation, laboratories and sports centre.

There will also be Judo demonstrations and speeches, with the opening itself taking place at 2.30pm.

It will be a day of celebration for the university, which will now be at the forefront of Judo training nationwide and will play a key part in nurturing of the country best players in years to come.

The centre will focus on delivering a centralised training programme to the British Judo Association’s junior and transition athletes aged between 17 and 22, with the vision that the centre will evolve into the main centralised training facility for the sport.

November’s opening is the culmination of a process which began at the start of this year. Following the independent performance review, one of the key recommendations was to establish a Centre of Excellence for the sport in England to complete British Judo’s performance network.

In May, the University of Wolverhampton was selected as the venue for the centre and work began on the project.

This has involved the creation of a state-of-the-art dojo, which will be used exclusive by the British Judo Association.

Michael Chamberlain, Director of Sport at the University of Wolverhampton stated: “We are very proud to be recognised as having a sports campus that provides a perfect elite sport training environment for the country’s top judo players, and a team of staff who can look after their needs.  

“Being chosen as the preferred venue ahead of what are arguably some of the UK's top sports universities is indeed a feather in our cap.”

ENDS

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Date Issued: Monday 28 October 2013