Venues prepare for athletes

HACKNEY is set for an influx of international athletes as several of the borough's sporting venues, schools and parks have been included in the official guide for training camps in the build-up to the 2012 Olympic Games.

All national Olympic and Paralympic committees receive the guide to help decide where to base themselves, or where to send individual competitors to prepare and acclimatise.

Clissold Leisure Centre in Stoke Newington and Stoke Newington Media Arts and Science College, also in Clissold Road, are listed as training facilities for basketball, boxing, fencing, judo, indoor volley ball and wrestling.

Competitors will also be able to practise a wide range of sports, including table tennis, archery and beach volleyball, at Britannia Leisure Centre in Hyde Road, Hoxton, and at Shoreditch Park in New North Road,

Fencing will be available at Petchey Academy in Shacklewell Lane, Dalston, and at the yet-to-be-built KPMG City Academy in Homerton High Street, as well as at Hackney Community College in Falkirk Street, Shoreditch, where facilities for badminton, basketball and table tennis will also be available.

The Bridge Academy in Laburnum Street, Haggerston and Haggerston Park will have facilities for boxing and beach volleyball and archers will be able to use Hackney Marshes and Mabley Green.

Hackney Council has said it will provide alternatives if any of the venues is being used for other training. Schools and clubs will be given the chance to watch Olympians and Paralympians in action at some of the training sessions.

"Having top international athletes here in 2012 will be a great inspiration for the borough's children and young people," said the mayor of Hackney, Jules Pipe.

"They will see first hand what it is like to be an Olympic level competitor with local clubs making connections with teams training here.