Marking 1000 days until London 2012
30 Oct 09
The University and its hockey club are staging an event this Sunday (1 November) to mark 1000 days before London 2012 and Oxford’s first step in its programme of activity in the run up to the Olympic Games.
The event celebrates the laying of a new Olympic-standard artificial hockey pitch at the Iffley Road sports complex. Alumni and current students will form two teams and will play a match to christen the new surface.
The original pitch had enjoyed a decade of intensive usage by students, local schools and the wider community but was badly in need of replacement. Thanks to the considerable support of alumni and the Foundation for Sport & the Arts, a brand new surface was laid during August and September.
Lord Faulkner of Worcester, alumnus and Trustee of the Foundation for Sport & the Arts, will cut the ribbon on this new facility at 10.45am and start the celebratory match immediately afterwards.
All donors, as well as alumni are invited to attend, and there will be a series of rapid-fire hockey matches in the morning. Previous award winning hockey Oxonian Olympian and ex England captain Denys Carnill will also be attending. Denys won Olympic bronze in Helsinki in 1952 and was a defeated semi-finalist in Melbourne 1956 and Rome 1960.
'We are delighted to have such a fantastic surface to play on, and it will also prove to be an excellent asset for the wider city and region,' said Jon Roycroft, Director of Sport at the University. 'I would like to thank our alumni for their considerable generosity and the kind support of the Foundation for Sport & the Arts.
'As we reach 1000 days to London 2012, and given our extensive Olympic heritage, we look forward to playing a significant role within Oxfordshire’s strategy for the Games and hope that we can help inspire the next sporting generation.'
Jon RoycroftWe are delighted to have such a fantastic surface to play on, and it will also prove to be an excellent asset for the wider city and region.
Oxonians have won 52 Olympic Gold Medals – and had it been a nation, would have finished 31st in the Beijing medal table. Although Oxford has been only one of a number of contributors to the success of those athletes, the Olympics has been a critical thread running through the history of Oxford sport. For all the recent heroics of athletes like Matthew Pinsent, there are outstanding stories from the earlier days.
With this background, the University cannot ignore its role in helping to make London 2012 an exceptional event that will have long lasting benefits for the local community, UK and wider world. With London 2012 comprising not only sport, but culture, education and sustainability elements, it is easy to appreciate why the University maps well on to this framework.
The University not only wants to help produce successful athletes, but to take full advantage of its official status as a Pre-Games Training Camp Venue. In order to attract an overseas nation, it needs to offer a full package of support, so has partnered with Radley College, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford Utd FC and a leading equestrian centre in the area to offer a consortium of facilities and sports science back-up. Combined with the appeal of Oxford as an iconic city, the worldwide reputation of the University and its proximity to London, the University hopes to establish more than just a short-term training relationship and instead establish a multi-year exchange partnership.
As part of the Cultural Olympiad, it is hoped large parts of the University will stage London 2012 related events and programmes and as a major tourist destination form a leg of the Torch Relay.
Students and academics are being encouraged by UK Sport to respond to the challenge of creating technology and engineering innovations that will enable those fractional improvements in performance for Team GB athletes – the difference between climbing on a podium and leaving empty handed. Oxford intends to play its part.