China’s Choice: North Ireland’s Salto Gymnastics Club to be its Training Base Camp
The Chinese artistic gymnastics team has chosen Salto Gymnastics Club in North Ireland for its training ahead of the London Olympics 2012.
The team’s decision followed the decision of the Australian boxing team to utilize North Ireland as a base-camp for training. Paralympics Ireland has also chosen North Ireland as its pre-Olympics training base.
North Ireland’s Sports Minister, Caral Ni Chuilin, congratulated Sport North Ireland and Tony Byrne, CEO and coach at Salto Gymnastics Club. “There has been tremendous amount of work behind the scenes for some times to promote venues in the north of Ireland,”
she said.
Numerous late night and early morning phone calls were made to the Chinese Gymnastics Association by Salto representatives. Byrne and Head Coach, Sun Jie, were highly active in these negotiations.
Chinese coaches, Xiong Jingbin and Jin Weiguo, visited the venue to judge the facilities offered by Salto in July this year. The visit was productive and pleasant.
While the facilities met the mark, the favourable relationships with Salto’s coach, Sun Jie, sweetened the partnership between China, Lisburn City Council and SportNI.
The training is predicted to cover 10 days approximately in the summer of 2012, whereby 30 delegates from China will employ the resources at Salto for their gymnastics training.
The delegation comprises of 16 athletes accompanied by physiotherapists, officials, coaches and a doctor.
It is reported that the training camp will be funded by DCAL, Sport NI and Lisburn City Council, jointly.
The sheer importance of final training before London Olympics makes the choice of venue an extremely crucial decision. On the flipside it makes the decision in the favour of North Ireland an honour.
Dominic Walsh, Chairman of Sport NI, was delighted at securing the account. He emphasized that China’s recognition of Salto as an above par facility “further cements the centre’s reputation across the world”.
He continued to bring attention to the hard work that had gone into these negotiations and acknowledged the Chinese gymnastics team’s decision as a well-deserved success for Sport NI.
Walsh also hopes for a domino effect through China’s endorsement, and believes it will assure other teams of North Ireland’s worth as a “terrific place to train and prepare”.
North Ireland’s level of job sustenance and creation is getting significant boost from the business opportunities they have actively encountered through their involvement in the Olympics.
At the same time, the buzz created, as preparations are made to welcome foreign sports delegates, is promoting the sport among youngsters while improving the social climate of North Ireland.
Seb Coe, Chair of London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, expressed his approval of China’s decision. He spoke with experience when he assured the Chinese delegates of the “warmest welcomes” and congratulated the sports administrators
of North Ireland.
Tags: