2010 News
- News Archive
South African Minister Visits St Mary's
Rev Dr Makhenkesi Stofile, South Africa’s Minister of Sport and Recreation, visited St Mary’s University College, Twickenham this week to see where his national team will base their Pre-Games training camps for the London 2012 Olympics.
The team will stay at Lensbury Ltd in Teddington and use St Mary’s as their training base together with local sports venues, all of which are part of South London’s Go South Go consortium of local authorities and sports organisations.
After a tour of the St Mary's facilities Minister Stofile said: "The athletics track is excellent, and I'm very impressed by the way the facilities have been integrated together."
St Mary’s and Lensbury were chosen by South Africa in 2009 from a strong South London offer prepared by Go South Go, and in preference to offers from other elite training centres.
Ian Smith, Director of the South London Partnership, said: “Go South Go was formed to allow South London to make the most of the opportunities associated with London 2012 and I am sure that the partnership of St Mary’s, Lensbury and the individual sports venues will deliver an excellent programme for South Africa.”
The Minister was shown the University College’s existing sports facilities and sport science / sports medicine services, and had the opportunity to look at the plans for the new sports centre that will be ready for Spring 2011 in good time for the first full visit of the South African squad.
The Minister was welcomed on behalf of the University College, Lensbury, Go South Go and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames by St Mary’s Principal Dr Arthur Naylor, who stressed the value of the partnership for London 2012 and the high profile of the University College as a High Performance Centre for Sport.
Dr Naylor said: “We were delighted to be chosen by South Africa to host their Pre-Games Training Camps for 2012 and we look forward with great enthusiasm to helping them achieve their ‘12 from 12’ medal target.”
A presentation of the St Mary’s sports kit was made to Dr Stofile by two of University College’s best endurance runners, Steph Twell and Andy Vernon, both of whom won Senior National Cross-Country titles in Leeds at the weekend.
The Borough was represented by Council Leader, Cllr Serge Lourie, and the Cabinet member for Youth, Sport and Leisure, Cllr Liz Jaeger, who is also a governor of the University College.
Serge Lourie said: “It is a great pleasure to support St Mary’s and Lensbury in providing training camps for South Africa and we know that they will enjoy their visits to London’s most beautiful borough.”
