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ITV News
4 days ago
- Sport
- ITV News
Local gymnastics club could lose access to £125,000 of Olympic equipment due to ownership dispute
Gymnastics equipment from the 2024 Olympic Games, gifted to a Jersey grassroots club, is at risk of being put into storage. Regent Gymnastics Club received the elite kit as a gift from the Independent Gymnastics Association (IGA) last November. Valued at around £125,000, the apparatus - which includes beams, bars, vaults, pommel horses, and flooring - was used in Paris last summer by stars such as Simone Biles and Max Whitlock. For the past seven months, it has been a key part of the club's regular training sessions, with the hope that it can catapult young athletes to similar levels of success. However, Fort Regent's forthcoming £110 million redesign means the club has to relocate and they have been told they will not be able to take the Olympic equipment with them. Jersey's Infrastructure Minister says the Government has to ensure the equipment at the island's new gymnastics centre in Oakfield meets relevant health and safety standards. Constable Andy Jehan adds they also want to ensure it can be accessed by all clubs who might want to use it, not just Regent Gymnastics. He says: "We want to be able to use the new facility as long and as often as we possibly can. We don't want to find ourselves in a position where people are telling us, 'You can't use that because that's our kit'. "We hope to maximise the space and take responsibility for insuring, maintaining, and inspecting the kit, so that's why we wanted to take ownership. "I understand we offered to buy the kit but were told in no uncertain terms it wasn't for sale." Instead, the Government has spent many thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money fitting the new Oakfield facility with apparatus from "the exact same manufacturer". However, the IGA say they gifted the equipment for the purpose of training future stars, donating it to Regent Gymnastics on the condition they used it to host international competitions and kept it in good condition. The Association's CEO, Chris Adams, says: "If the States of Jersey Government wants to use it in this new facility, all they've got to do is ring us up and say, 'Can we have the equipment there?' and we'd say, 'Absolutely'. "There's no charge for it. But nobody's emailed, nobody's picked up the phone, absolutely nothing." Regent Gymnastics echoes these sentiments, saying they have not been given clear reasons as to why the Government felt they had to buy the equipment for it to be safely used at Oakfield. The club's Head Coach, Julia Falle, adds: "It was gifted to the island - for the children, for the community, for gymnastics. "We've offered it to the Government for Oakfield and they don't want to go down that route, they want to own the equipment themselves, but I don't understand why." However, Constable Jehan insists: "The CEO [of the IGA] has not responded to emails from the department and officers have tried to find a solution. "We ultimately had to make an order for the kit and that is what has happened."
BBC News
17-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Virtual golf practice area in Basildon approved by council
Golfers can expect to hone their skills at a new virtual facility after plans were Council signed off on the application for the golf practice area at Basildon Sporting Village in would be 10 covered practice bays that would look over a synthetic grass outfield area measuring 30m by 30m (98ft).Independent Mo Larkin, who chairs the council planning committee, said: "I think probably it's a good use of spare land." The sporting village, that is just off Cranes Farm Road, already offers a range of sporting facilities including an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It was also where gold-medal winning Olympic gymnast Max Whitlock has perfected his skills. A planning officer told the meeting on Wednesday the facility would improve the leisure centre and support healthy lifestyles, and councillors voted in favour of the Active runs Basildon Sporting Village and submitted the leisure company's area contract manager Shaun Beagle said: "This exciting addition represents a significant investment and will create fantastic opportunities for people of all ages and abilities."According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Beagle said the facility would be operated by golf games typically use technology and screens to simulate the experience of playing a real round of golf. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
