Stoke Mandeville Stadium host Finnish Training Camp in run up to 2011 Championships and 2012 Paralympic Games

Stoke Mandeville Stadium, the home of disability sport and the birthplace of the Paralympic Games recently hosted a Finnish Wheelchair Rugby Training Camp, which concluded with a scintillating match against their GB counterparts.

The team made use of the first class, specialised training facilities at the centre in Aylesbury and spent at least six hours each day within the centre making use of the gym to build on the team’s fitness and the sports halls to work on technique and team play. The players and staff from Finland were pleased with the sporting facilities as well as the purpose built accommodation all within the same location.

Team Finland concluded the week of hard work with a match against the GB Wheelchair Rugby Team on Thursday in front of a crowd of over 100 people. It was an exciting and very close match and Finland narrowly lost 49 to 52.

Tommi Ojanen, Head Coach of Team Finland Wheelchair Rugby said: "My players and staff enjoyed a great training week with Team GB at Stoke Mandeville Stadium. During this week we trained and played hard in the start of preparation to European Championships 2011 and qualification to London Paralympic Games 2012. The closeness of accommodation and sport facilities made it easy to have an effective training week."

Ian Seabrook, Business Development Manager at Stoke Mandeville Stadium said: “It was great to welcome the team to our centre for a week long training camp. The GB Squad also trained alongside the Finnish team all week, which was fantastic to see and created a real buzz around the centre. It was great to see members of the community working out and interacting with these two international teams.”