Local leisure centre welcomes thousands through doors at successful anniversary event
Winchester Sport and Leisure Park celebrated a successful open day event with Olympic athletes present to celebrate its one-year anniversary since opening.
Managed by Everyone Active in partnership with Winchester City Council, the Bar End based facility welcomed over 2000 people to the Big Splash event.
The local community enjoyed a number of activities across the weekend including public lane and family swimming, synchronised swimming, a ‘Rookie Lifeguard’ course and ‘dive and glide’ sessions, group fitness and cycling classes, access to the gym, top rock, squash, martial arts, pool inflatables, bouncy castle, racket sports, and freestyle football, hosted by Jamie Knight.
A total of 93 children, from 43 schools, clubs and the Everyone Active Swim Lesson Programme enjoyed the Big Splash with former Olympic athlete, Rebecca Adlington OBE, Commonwealth medallist and synchronised swimmer, Adele Carlsen, London 2012 Olympian and synchronised swimmer, Kate Skelton, British water polo goalkeeper Matt Holland, and British record holder and former Olympian in freestyle swimming, Grant Turner headlining the poolside activities.
Alison Norman, Everyone Active Area Contract Manager, said:
“We were thrilled to see so many people through the doors to celebrate our one-year anniversary. It has been a massive success.
“I’d like to thank our colleagues, and the Olympians at our Big Splash event, who made it a great success. The response we’ve received from our members has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re so pleased to see many new and returning members through our doors and the community benefiting from all the fantastic activities we had on show.”
Cllr Lucile Thompson, added:
“The anniversary event was a fantastic occasion and I was delighted to see so many local children taking part in the Big Splash. It was hugely inspiring to see our Olympic champions engaging with the centre’s members and visitors and a great opportunity to showcase sporting excellence. Winchester’s Sport & Leisure Park is an outstanding example of what can be achieved by working in collaboration with our partners and I’m looking forward to continuing our work with them to ensure the centre is constantly improving, evolving and attracting a growing number of visitors in the future.”