Olympic Legacy Lives on…
With one week to go to the Olympic Games, today sees the official opening of the Jubilee River Riverside Centre, Slough; an initiative that has directly benefitted from the London 2012 Games.
The two cabins, which were used at Eton Dorney during London 2012, have been set-up into an indoor centre to provide the local community with the opportunity to try rowing and canoeing. As well as storing boats and kayaks, the centre also has changing facilities and a basic gym with indoor rowing machines to help encourage more people to get involved in sport.
The initiative is supported by Sport England, British Rowing, British Canoeing and SWIPE, who have worked together to set-up the centre and to deliver free, or low cost, rowing and canoeing activity on a quiet, man-made stretch of river. The land has been kindly leased by Eton College, a process negotiated by British Rowing, Slough Borough Council, SWIPE and Get Berkshire Active.
“It has been hard work pulling all elements of this project together, so it is really exciting to finally see all that pay off. We exceeded our targets of getting 100 participants on the water by 2017 with over 800 local people already having had the opportunity to try rowing or canoeing, and this is only the start.” commented Chris Farrell, Strategic Project Officer at British Rowing.
“It is apt that the centre officially opens just one week to go until the Rio 2016 Games,” commented Andy Parkinson, CEO of British Rowing. “Many of our staff have supported the development of rowing in this area and the project embraces our values of teamwork and being open to all.”
Director of SWIPE, Jamie Green added: “It is great that we can provide a sustainable option for the local community in this beautiful, relatively unknown stretch of water. I am excited to see the continued growth of this facility and thank British Rowing and all our other partners for their support. It has been overwhelming to see how many people have invested their resource into this project.”
For more information on session times at the Jubilee Riverside Centre and how to take part in your first session then head to their website for more information.
