The following is a guest blog by Sally Wood-Lamont, President of the Romanian National Paralympic Committee.
The Romanian Paralympic team are currently at their Pre-Paralympic Games training camp in Knowsley, Liverpool. The cycling team, with athletes Eduard Novak, currently world champion in both the road and track events with Torok Imre a fellow cyclist from the Tusnaud Cycling club in Miercuri Ciuc, together with his trainer Cristiano Valoppi and staff including mechanic, masseur and technical support have been there since 13 August.
The rest of the team arrived on the 18th August. The National Paralympic Committee, Romania took advantage of a grant offered to all countries for the Paralympics and the Olympics by the London Organising Committee to hold a pre-training camp in Great Britain.
I chose Knowsley, Liverpool because it had all the top standard and accessible facilities for our team. I secured training for the cycling team at Manchester Velodrome, one of the best in Europe and also near Knowsley there are good challenging cycling routes with hills which they require to prepare for their road races at Brands Hatch on the 5th and 6th September. The course there is very technical in some areas, with difficult climbs, few flat sections and deceptively fast and features ‘off-camber’ corners that will test the riders.
Dacian Makszin, the table tennis player has the Greenbank Sports Centre, the swimmers have the Wavertree Leisure Centre, 10 and 12 mins from the hotel respectively and in both of these centres British team members train. Florin Cojoc, the athlete has the Kirby Sports College only up the road which has the most advanced track in UK for disabled sports.The Suites hotel has a swimming pool, gym, steam room and sauna and excellent food and accommodation. I wanted to make sure that the team had the best possible conditions for the London Paralympics…they have never been offered such an excellent opportunity before.
The team will remain in Knowsley until the 26th when they will all move to the Paralympic village in Stratford, London. The Paralympics Opening ceremony is on the 29 August and the closing is on the 9thSeptember.
For more information about the Romanian Paralympic Team, please contact Sally Wood-Lamont, President of the Romanian National Paralympic Committee, 0040737088518 , e-mail: swood@umfcluj.ro