Britain's plan for Beijing Olympics: Macau holding camp

PLANNING FOR THE BIGGEST EVENT OF ALL@EIS

In the lead up to Beijing next year, there will be a multisport holding camp in Macau with most of Britain’s Olympic sports including Hockey, Judo, Archery and Athletics based there. However some sports have different training requirements, so we arrange slightly different bases for them.

For example, Equestrian only move their horses once, so they will go straight to Hong Kong, where their competition is taking place and be with their horses for the whole duration. Triathlon will be based in JeJu Island, in South Korea so they can get the right cycle training facilities, as well as the swimming and running. Rowing and Canoe Slalom will actually be doing their final preparation training on the Olympic Competition Venues, so they will have their Holding Camp based around those sites.

Flying the athletes to the holding camps at least 7 days before the Games will help give them enough time to recover from the travel. For athletes based in Macau, the flight to Beijing is only 3hours and in the afternoon, so should have very little impact.

NZ high performance funding

SPARC Announces $4.9 Million Investment In High Performance Sport@SPARC

SPARC (Sport & Recreation New Zealand) today announced that it will invest $4.9 million in the high performance projects of 15 different sports in 2008 and beyond.

SPARC invests an additional $11 million in the high performance programmes of nine targeted sports. Those sports include cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics, among others.

European training centre for Australian athletes

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has signed a formal agreement with the Varese Provincial Government to finalise a contract for the construction of a European Training Centre (ETC) for Australian athletes@sports vine

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has signed a formal agreement with the Varese Provincial Government to finalise a contract for the construction of a European Training Centre (ETC) for Australian athletes.

The Centre will be used by Australian athletes and teams in preparing for elite competition like the 2012 London Olympics.

The Australian Government, through the Australian Sports Commission, has committed $11million towards the establishment and operation of the European Training Centre at Gavirate, on the shores of Lake Varese in northern Italy.

This will provide AIS and Australian athletes with access to the same world's best Australian sports science and sports medicine advice and services that they currently enjoy in Australia.

physical exercise or brain exercise?

Exercise on the Brain@NYT

One form of training has been shown to maintain and improve brain health — physical exercise. In humans, exercise improves what scientists call “executive function,” the set of abilities that allows you to select behavior that’s appropriate to the situation, inhibit inappropriate behavior and focus on the job at hand in spite of distractions. Executive function includes basic functions like processing speed, response speed and working memory, the type used to remember a house number while walking from the car to a party.