Click below to listen to the interviews again:
[mixcloud height=120 width=620]https://www.mixcloud.com/phoenixfm/hadleigh-park-official-opening/[/mixcloud]
(0:00 Victoria Pendleton, 3:45 David Finch, 6:21 Jason Fergus, 9:05 Norman Ord, 12:01 Charles Johnston)
Phoenix FM was invited to the opening of the new Hadleigh Park mountain bike facilities in Essex.
Hadleigh Park was home of the London 2012 Olympic Mountain Biking events – a fact that reminds every visitor to the town!
It’s the only Olympic course still in use use after the games have finished. It’s not just a world-class mountain bike track – it’s also a community facility with a cycling hire shop and cafe.
Current Olympic Keirin champion Victoria Pendleton, who won gold at Beijing in 2008 as well as London in 2012 to go with her nine world titles, was on hand to officially launch the new facilities.
We spoke to her about what the park can offer experienced cyclists and novices alike, along with a chat about the other things she’s been involved in since retiring from track cycling.
As well as speaking to Victoria Pendleton, we spoke some of the people who helped to bring Hadleigh Park’s legacy to life, including Cllr David Finch, the leader of Essex County Council; Normal Ord, divisional commander of the Salvation Army, which owns the land and Charles Johnston, Director of Property at Sport England.
It was also great to catch up with a couple of friends of Phoenix FM from way, way back. Jason Fergus is a former British international sprinter who was not only interviewed during Phoenix FM’s first ever week on air in January 1997, he enjoyed it so much he came back and presented a weekend dance music show for the final three weeks of our first temprorary broadcast! Jason was Sports Development Officer at Brentwood Borough Council at that time and is now Director of Active Essex, one of the bodies responsible for developing Hadleigh Park into the world-class facility it is today.
We also caught up with Bob McLintock, former Chief Executive of Brentwood Borough Council who helped us finding accommodation and funding in our fledgling days at the end of the last century! Bob is now a trustee of Active Essex as well as being chairman of the activebrentwood sports partnership.
I’m sure a future edition of the sports show will have some of our presenters back at the part with their cycling helmets on …
