Saudi Arabian Powerlifter’s visit Stoke Mandeville Stadium

Stoke Mandeville Stadium, the National Centre for Disability Sport, has welcomed the South East’s first London 2012 pre-games training camp by prospective Paralympic athletes. Seven members of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) Disabled Sports Federation Powerlifting Team spent 10 days at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium earlier this month.



Whilst at the Stadium they took part in the British Powerlifting Championships and received an intensive coaching and coach education programme under the guidance of Jon Amos, the former Head Coach/Team Manager of GB Paralympic Powerlifting Squad.

It is hoped that the training camps will form part of a longer term relationship between the two nations as we lead up to the London 2012 Games.

Jon Amos the training camp organiser said: “This has been a great opportunity to showcase the fantastic facilities at Stoke Mandeville Stadium. We hope to build upon the Saudi–British Sports co-operation programme and look forward to welcoming them and other teams back.”

Ian Seabrook, the Business Development Manager from Stoke Mandeville Stadium said, “It is an honour to welcome the Saudi Arabian athletes to Stoke Mandeville Stadium. Over the last 12 months we have been working with our partners; Bucks 2012 Group and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) to promote our region to international athletes. We hope this is the first of what we hope will be many teams visiting our facilities to train and prepare ahead 2012.”

Ian Barham the Buckinghamshire 2012 Manager said, “Stoke Mandeville is known worldwide as the birthplace of disability sport and the origins of the Paralympics. We are proud of this unique heritage and the appeal it holds for international visitors. In the next few months we will be supporting visits by many international teams competing in a summer long series of sporting competitions being organized to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the last time the Paralympic Games were held in this country at Stoke Mandeville”

Paddy Herlihy, the South East Manager for the 2012 Games said, “SEEDA and its regional partners are working hard to attract as many Olympic and Paralympic teams as possible from other countries to train in the South East region between now and the 2012 Games. Indeed, we hope that teams will train at our excellent facilities for many years after 2012 as well.”

The Stoke Mandeville Stadium is managed by Leisure Connection on behalf of the national charity for wheelchair Sport – WheelPower.