London 2012’s Olympic Board has issued a statement confirming that it will not be making changes to the staging of the Equestrian and Modern Pentathlon events which are due to take place in Greenwich Park. The decision comes after they received the findings of KPMG’s review in to the Olympic venues.
The statement says:
* None of the alternatives identified by LOCOG and considered by KPMG are in a location which is close enough to accommodate the Modern Pentathlon show jumping event which needs to be located close to the Olympic Park to allow the completion of all five events within one day;
* Any move away from Greenwich would therefore result in a doubling up of facilities with the need to build a separate Modern Pentathlon show-jumping facility close to the Olympic Park;
* In addition, all of the alternative venues would also require the funding of additional accommodation as they are not within IOC guidelines for travel time from the Olympic Village;
* Given these considerations, an alternative location for equestrian and modern pentathlon would not result in lower costs than Greenwich Park.
Useful Links
KPMG’s Intellectually Suspect Olympic Site Review
Find out more directly from the 2012 Organisers
Now why don’t I find this surprising!
If the equestrian event is held in Greenwich Park THEN the opportunity should be taken to restore the only design in Britain by the greatest landscape architect of the seventeenth century. Andre Le Notre designed the grass parterre on which it is proposed a stadium will be built for the 2012 Olympics. See here