Venue

 

New multi-sport arena to be home for handball

HANDBALL will be staged in one of four multi-sport arenas to be built within the Olympic Park, the 500-acre site that lies at the heart of London’s plans for 2012.

 

The site in Stratford is located just seven minutes from the centre of London and will also contain an aquatics centre, velodrome, a hockey centre, media facilities and the Olympic Village, in which 17,800 athletes and officials will be housed.

 

“We aim to end up with the best collection of sports facilities in Europe, maybe anywhere in the world,” said London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe.

It will be set in a huge new Olympic Park, the largest created in Europe since the 19th century, a network of cleaned up and revitalised canals and the River Lea will wind through the Park, providing a magnificent setting for the Games in the East London borough of Newham.

 

The Olympic Park will kick-start the regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley in east London, which is a national regeneration priority and one of the biggest regeneration opportunities in Europe.

 

The Olympic Park will be transformed for local use after the Games. Key sporting venues will be retained, including two of the multi-sport arenas. One will remain as a competition and training venue, the other as a regional centre for indoor sports.

The remaining two arenas will be dismantled after the Games and rebuilt somewhere else in Britain.

 

All the new venues will be situated within easy walking distance of each other, allowing competitors and spectators alike to experience the unique atmosphere of an Olympic Games.