IOC president opens training centre at AUT Millennium Campus
IOC President Dr Jacques Rogge and the Minister for Sport and Recreation Hon. Murray McCully will open the National Training Centre for high performance athletes at AUT Millennium Campus today Friday, 21 October, 2011.
“The National Training Centre has been fast-tracked so it can be used by athletes training for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games, and it will be an essential part in preparing our athletes for 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro and beyond,” says Mike Stanley chief executive officer of AUT Millennium Trust.
World class sports research laboratory
The National Training Centre will house AUT’s Sport Performance Research Institute New Zealand (SPRINZ) sports science laboratory, the headquarters of High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ), the High Performance Strength, Conditioning and Recovery Centre, and expanded sports medicine services.
“The National Training Centre is a world-class training and research centre which will help our athletes and their coaches in their quest to become even more competitive,” says Mr Stanley.
The centre is part of the $29 million first-stage expansion of the AUT Millennium Campus which is expected to be completed by May 2012. The development will double facility floor space to 12,000 square metres and have a capital value of $60 million.
Sporting partnership
The expansion is the result of a partnership between the Government and AUT Millennium Ownership Trust with funding contributions from the ASB Community Trust and donors including Sir David Levene and Owen Glenn, with a further commitment from Auckland Council for the National Aquatics Centre.
Minister for Sport and Recreation Murray McCully says the Government has a clear vision for high performance sport and the centre’s role in it.
“We want to make NZ one of the most successful sporting nations in the world and that’s why we are committed to making the most significant funding injection into high performance sport that New Zealand has ever seen.
“Annually, more than $60 million dollars will be spent on high performance funding creating a significantly more ambitious framework for high performance sport in NZ, and the National Training Centre is a key part of this,” he says.
The centre will house HPSNZ’s strength, conditioning and recovery centre for elite athletes.
AUT Millennium is a 50:50 partnership between AUT University and Millennium Institute of Sport and Health.
“AUT University is NZ’s leading sports science research university with internationally renowned experts in the areas of physical conditioning, performance analysis, biomechanics, exercise physiology, injury prevention and anthropometry,” says AUT University Vice Chancellor Derek McCormack.
“Research from the institute will assist high performance athletes achieve their goals and also be used to improve the health and well-being of all New Zealanders,” he says.
$2.4 million worth of new sports research equipment
The SPRINZ laboratory contains $2.4 million worth of new equipment including a temperature-controlled environmental chamber, a treadmill that goes up to 70km/h, a biomechanics laboratory that produces a 3D image of athletes running and a sports immunology and biochemistry laboratory.
“The SPRINZ laboratory is unique in New Zealand in that it is based next door to High Performance Sport New Zealand’s training and recovery area. This means we are ideally placed to gather research from some of the best athletes in the country,” says SPRINZ director John Cronin.