Following 18 months of talks, Serbia has formalised its intention to use the Yorkshire cities of Sheffield and Leeds for its international training camps over the next three years with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding. The document, which is an agreement between Serbia, Sheffield and Leeds was signed in Belgrade during a Yorkshire/Serbia conference focused on developing relationships and building business links.
Signing the agreement on behalf of the hosts in Belgrade was General Secretary of the Serbian Olympic Committee Djordje Viacki, Ben Brailsford, 2012 Delivery Manager at Sheffield City Council. The meeting in Belgrade was the fourth time the Serbian Olympic committee had met with representatives from Sheffield since discussions began in 2007.
Cllr Sylvia Dunkley, Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Streetscene at Sheffield City Council commented,
"The signing of this agreement is testament to the outstanding facilities and sporting proficiency we have in Sheffield and were delighted to secure this agreement.
"We look forward to welcoming the Serbian athletes to Sheffield in the near future and will be encouraging them to meet with and get involved with the local community while they are here."
Sheffield has already seen the benefits of hosting international training camps. Along with the permanent location of GB teams in the city, over 1 million has been generated for the local economy directly from national teams and international teams using Sheffield's facilities and expertise. This figure is set to grow in the lead up to London 2012 as the city develops closer links with countries looking to base training camps in the UK.
The Serbian squads that are expected to base themselves in Sheffield for international training camps include Boxing, Judo and Athletics and discussions will also take place around the team sports of Basketball, Volleyball and Handball.
Serbia originally approached the Yorkshire region after recognising the outstanding level of sporting expertise based here alongside the concentration of world class facilities in Sheffield, including the largest English Institute of Sport venue in the country and the world class Ponds Forge International Sports Centre both operated by Sheffield International Venues.
Kate Auld of Yorkshire Gold, the region's London 2012 Committee, commented,
"Yorkshire's already starting to attract major international interest in our world class training facilities for the London 2012 Games and we're still three years away. Hosting pre-games training camps will give people the chance to get involved with events happening on their doorstep; whether its watching Olympic hopefuls in training or local businesses securing contracts to take care of the teams when they arrive."
Alongside the training camps, the committee has discussed the development of cultural and language programmes for the athletes as well as introducing them to the local community.