City enters the Olympics race (From York Press)

City enters the Olympics race

8:28am Friday 5th January 2007 in News By Gavin Aitchison, gavin.aitchison@thepress.co.uk

THE race is on for sports venues in York hoping to take part of the 2012 Olympics.

A prospectus is being prepared, to showcase what the city has to offer, as part of its bid to become a pre-games training venue for competitors.

Sports facilities and venues are now being invited to put themselves forward for a piece of the action.

City of York Council has written to potential venues inviting them to express an interest.

Charlie Croft, the authority's assistant director of lifelong learning and culture, wrote: "If you believe that your facilities should be included in the guide, I would urge you to act now so that you do not miss this opportunity.

"You may also be interested to know that York is represented on the Yorkshire 2012 committee, which is taking a more proactive approach on this issue.

"This committee believes that to attract national teams to the region, it will be more effective to put together a prospectus showing what the region has to offer.

"There will be co-operation between districts in putting together packages.

"York will be working with Leeds and other neighbouring authorities."

The letter also said the council's executive member for leisure services Keith Orrell would shortly be leading a group to shape York's response to 2012.

A council spokeswoman said the letter had been sent to all sporting facilities or organisations on their database, which amounted to about 200.

The Next Generation Club, off Hull Road, is one of the venues looking to play a role in the run-up to the Olympics.

Sales and membership manager Richard Fleming said: "We are hoping to be involved, but we will have to look at what the council is proposing before we could say what we would want to get involved in.

"Obviously the facilities we have currently exceed any others in the local area.

"There are a number of local athletes that want to get in shape and prepare themselves for the Olympics, and we would aim to get involved."

Last year, The Press reported that York was hoping to become a pre-games training camp for competitors heading to London for the 2012 games, with a number of city venues hoping to accommodate athletes.

As well as Next Generation, other interested institutions include Huntington Stadium, York St John University, York City Rowing Club, and the University of York.