by SHERRYLYN A. TOPPIN

THE BARBADOS OLYMPIC ASSOCIATION (BOA) has chosen the town of Crawley, West Sussex, as its pre-Olympic training venue for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

This is part of a BDS$100 000 training grant that has been provided by the organising committee for those games.

Secretary general Erskine Simmons made the announcement last Saturday at the Netball Stadium, Waterford, St Micahel, during the opening ceremony for the 2010 netball season.

In an interview with NATIONSPORT, Simmons said the BOA team visited Crawley late last year and it was given the nod over Sheffield, Ipswich, Colchester and Wandsworth.

Crawley is only ten minutes away from Gatwick Airport; it has facilities for all disciplines except cycling, and is one of the venues that does state-of-the-art scientific research on sports.

"Today, preparation of the athlete is vitally important. There are facilities where athletes can go to look at the body movement, their motor skills and so on," Simmons said.

He used examples of a swimmer being able to analyse whether the correct technique was being used for the backstroke; if a cricketer held the bat in the correct way for a shot to be played or if a footballer kicked the ball the right way.

"There are chambers they can put you in similar to the environment so you can prepare - at high altitude, in extremely hot conditions and or very cold weather. During the Commonwealth Games in India, October can get up to temperatures between 40 and 45 degrees and athletes can adapt using these chambers," he said.

By choosing Crawley, the BOA would have all of its disciplines and team managers in one venue before going into the Olympic Village. If anyone from cycling qualifies for the games, arrangements will have to be made for them to train outside the city, since there are no top-class cycling venues close to Crawley.

Simmons said they had done a cost analysis and the grant provided would cover two weeks of training, depending on the size of the Barbados team. If another week was needed, the BOA would supplement the additional $50 000.

Although the funds must be used exclusively for Olympic preparation, he expressed hope that netball would benefit from the agreement.

"While netball is not a sport on the Olympic programme, the facilities in Crawley are excellent for your sport, with numerous teams of a high standard being located in that region.

"We are hoping to be able to utilise the Crawley agreement to assist in the development of netball in Barbados and are looking forward to having dialogue with you in this regard," Simmons said.

"There may also be opportunities for pre-Commonwealth Games training in Crawley if we can find the funding."

The senior national netball team is the only team which has qualified for this year's Commonwealth Games.

Glasgow has also extended a similar offer ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, but all training must be done in Scotland.