Britain was last night shamed by the ghetto-style sports sites set to host the world's best athletes at the 2012 Olympics. By Daniel Jones
Games chiefs proudly unveiled in May the 96 venues picked to be used as training camps by legends including cyclist Chris Hoy and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
But months after stars like swimmer Rebecca Adlington took Team GB's medal tally to 47 in Beijing, the next generation of heroes face facilities like slums.
Among the horrors were a dangerously sub-standard running track, mouldy showers and excrement splattered toilets.
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and games chief Lord Sebastian Coe trumpeted the sports centres chosen across the capital as "high quality facilities" which met tough criteria.
They will be used by the international elite in the run-up to their events at the summer Olympics, when the world's eyes are on Stratford, East London, and its outposts. But a spot-check of the Linford Christie Outdoor Sports Centre, Wormwood Scrubs, West London, found a rubble-strewn site with rusting, stomach-churning changing rooms. And the training facilities were submerged in water, overgrown and forgotten.
Meanwhile, the surface at Tooting Bec Athletics Track nearby was cracked and lifting. White Hart Lane Community Centre in North London was shabby and neglected, as was Barn Elms Sports Centre, South West London.
A spokesman for the London 2012 Organising Committee said: "Many of these facilities have funding in place and, as most teams will not come to train until 2011, there is time for work to take place."
Source
By Daniel Jones
www.people.co.uk
Games chiefs proudly unveiled in May the 96 venues picked to be used as training camps by legends including cyclist Chris Hoy and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
But months after stars like swimmer Rebecca Adlington took Team GB's medal tally to 47 in Beijing, the next generation of heroes face facilities like slums.
Among the horrors were a dangerously sub-standard running track, mouldy showers and excrement splattered toilets.
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and games chief Lord Sebastian Coe trumpeted the sports centres chosen across the capital as "high quality facilities" which met tough criteria.
They will be used by the international elite in the run-up to their events at the summer Olympics, when the world's eyes are on Stratford, East London, and its outposts. But a spot-check of the Linford Christie Outdoor Sports Centre, Wormwood Scrubs, West London, found a rubble-strewn site with rusting, stomach-churning changing rooms. And the training facilities were submerged in water, overgrown and forgotten.
Meanwhile, the surface at Tooting Bec Athletics Track nearby was cracked and lifting. White Hart Lane Community Centre in North London was shabby and neglected, as was Barn Elms Sports Centre, South West London.
A spokesman for the London 2012 Organising Committee said: "Many of these facilities have funding in place and, as most teams will not come to train until 2011, there is time for work to take place."
Source
By Daniel Jones
www.people.co.uk
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