St. George’s Park welcomed Boccia UK - the National Governing Body for the Paralympic sport of Boccia in the UK - to the venue last week as they continue their preparations for the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo.
The three-day camp, Boccia UK’s first in 13 months due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, brought together members of Boccia UK’s World Class Programme, featuring athletes who represent Great Britain at international competitions, including the Paralympic Games.
Boccia has been a part of the Paralympics since 1984 and the British team has a proud Olympic history having won 12 individual medals, including fours golds, to go alongside a team gold at the 2008 Beijing Games.
It’s the first time the squad have used facilities at St. George’s Park, the home of all England football teams based in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.
Commenting on the experience, Helen Nicholls, Performance Director at Boccia UK, said: “We’ve come to St. George’s Park in the run up for our preparation towards Tokyo and the athletes are really excited to be back on court, back training and competing against each other. The facilities here are world class. The Futsal arena that we are training in is the flooring that we will be competing on in Tokyo and so for us it is outstanding.
“We’ve had quite a disrupted year as all sports have but for us it has affected us pretty significantly and to be able to come to a facility where we can just concentrate on performance in the run in to Tokyo has been really, really important. We’ve been doing skills tests with all of our athletes to benchmark where they are following a year of training at home during lockdown.
She adds: “The people here at St. George’s Park have made us feel really welcome, it is the first time we have ever been here, and we actually feel at home. It feels really safe and we can really concentrate on the performance bit of what we are doing”
Boccia UK made full use of St. George’s Park’s facilities during their stay with Match Play taking place in the Futsal arena, supported by gym and technical sessions, plus use of the hydrotherapy suite which uses the latest aquatic therapies and equipment to enable elite athletes to improve rehabilitation and recovery rates.
The camp marked a significant milestone for Boccia UK with less than 100 days to go until 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo which start on 24 August.
You can follow Boccia UK’s progress on the road to Tokyo on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
