Surrey Sports Park to host GB Women’s basketball team

Wednesday 28 April 2010

The multi-million pound Surrey Sports Park, which is owned by the University of Surrey, opened earlier this month and is one of Europe’s premier training facilities ahead of the London 2012 Olympics.

The agreement with British Basketball will also see the Women’s national team use the new Surrey Sports Park’s facilities as a training camp between the summer months of July and August in preparation for the start of the Eurobasket Women’s 2010 Qualifiers which start at the beginning of August. As part of the agreement the GB Women’s Futures Team and U20’s squad will also spend a week at training at Surrey Sports Park during June and July.

Great Britain has been drawn in Group D for the qualifying campaign, alongside Slovakia, Germany and Ukraine. The teams placed first and second in each group will qualify for the Final Round of EuroBasket Women 2011, which will be hosted by Poland. The ten teams which do not qualify will participate in an Additional Qualification or Relegation Round, which will be played in May 2011.

Surrey Sports Park, Chief Executive, Jason Harborow, said: “We are delighted to be hosting the GB Women’s basketball team this summer. The Eurobasket qualifying match between Great Britain and Ukraine is an exciting addition to our ever growing list of events in what is now a ‘Summer of Sport’ at Surrey Sports Park. It’s great to be working alongside British Basketball and I am sure our facilities will provide the perfect environment for the teams to train and play in this crucial year for GB Women’s basketball.”

The agreement with British Basketball to host the GB Women’s team underlines Surrey Sports Park’s commitment to basketball as one of its key performance sports, and follows December’s announcement that one of the UK’s most successful men’s British Basketball League (BBL) clubs teams, Guildford Heat, will be training and playing their home games in the new facility upon its opening.

British Basketball, Performance Director, Chris Spice, said: “This is an exciting development for British Basketball and the Surrey Sports Park. We are always looking for great facilities to practice and play important games in our international programmes. We are very pleased that we are able to be one of the first to use this excellent basketball facility. It will provide an excellent home for the GB women this year ahead of our most important season in the GB women’s team’s short history.“

Great Britain stars, including the likes of Harriet Yea, Lisa Hutchinson and Kim Butler, will be able to benefit from the Surrey Sports Park’s state-of-the-art facilities including a 50 metre swimming pool, three multi-purpose sports halls, eight outdoor floodlit tennis courts, two floodlit artificial grass pitches and a 120-station premium health and fitness suite.

The Surrey Sports Park has already been registered as a suitable training venue for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, but as well as catering for elite athletes it will also provide the very best in sporting facilities for anyone interested in sport and fitness.

Media Enquiries

Peter La, Press Office at the University of Surrey, Tel: +44 (0)1483 689191, or Email mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk