The Uplace Pro Triathlon team rounded off a 2 week camp at the BEST Centre with Tine Deckers and Sofie Goos finishing 2nd and 4th in the IM 70.3 in Alcudia last weekend.

The team had a great camp with us for the second year in a row, and after winning the Mallorca Olympic distance race in Colonia Sant Jordi the weekend before, Sofie Goos joined Deckers in the longer race in Alcudia.

You can read the comments from both girls on the Uplace site here.

One of the greatest swimmers in modern history, Ian Thorpe, was at the BEST Centre in Colonia Sant Jordi last week on a training camp with the Swiss Elite national team, coached by Gennadi Touretski.

The 5 time Olympic gold medallist is continuing his swimming for two more years and enjoyed the facilities at the BEST Centre, where the team had a fantastic week after training at altitude in Italy prior to their visit. See Ian’s photo at the pool on our facebook page. More to follow from Ian’s visit with us.

Triathlon at the BEST Centre goes from strength to strength. In the last week in March, all 10 lanes of the pool were taken by triathletes for the 7-9am session!

German Olympian Christian Prochnow ran a great camp here, with a group of 25 triathletes training here for 18 days. “This is the best place for Triathlon. You have everything here. This is the only place in Mallorca that is perferct to train for all three disciplines.”

The German national junior team once again chose the ideal surroundings of Colonia Sant Jordi for their 2 week camp in March. Franz Loschkte, world under 23 champion is with the group and goes directly from the BEST Centre to race in Morocco in preparation for European championships in Eilat.

Also in the water are the Saarland Tri team, also from Germany, who prefer the south of Mallorca to anywhere else. Squad coach Christian Weimer said, “It is much better for our training here. Nowhere in Mallorca is as good as this; the Olympic pool, soft running trails for 8km loops, and the cycling is perfect. You can’t get this in Alcudia.” Their Queen Session was a 5 hour ride incorporating both climbs of Son Salvador and Randa.

ACTC (Arragon’s Cumbria Tri Club) coach and European age group champion Stuart Robinson was here with his group for the second year running (and biking and swimming). The team rounded off a great week with their own sprint race, won this year by World Biathle champion Jon Fletcher. Aging up this year, Stuart has his eyes on the European and World age group titles.

Permanent racing

To build the triathlon community in Colonia Sant Jordi, the BEST Centre are planning a weekly open water swim circuit in the crystal clear water off the beaches there, as well as a sprint tri circuit that will be open to anyone to join in if they are visiting the area. All the details will be on the BEST Centre website in due course.

The Germany national water polo team have taken over the pool at the BEST Centre this week. Having a ball and enjoying the conditions at the BEST Centre, the team are led by 1984 Olympic bronze medallist Hagen Stamm, who also won European titles in 1981 and 1989.

Stamm has been head coach of the national team since 2000 and guided them to 5th place in the Athens Olympics in 2004. The team are preparing for this year’s Olympic qualification tournament in Canada next month.

Congratulations to all the swimmers who won medals in Poland at the European short course last weekend, particularly those who have trained with us at the BEST Centre. Span’s Mireia Belmonte was the star of the show with 4 golds, following the 3 gold she won at the world short course last year. Belmonte took the titles in the the 200 and 400 IM, 20 fly and 400 free.

Mallorca’s own Melanie Costa brought home the hardware, striking silver in the 200 free and bronzes in the 400 adn 800 free. Germany’s Silke Lippok, another friend of the BEST Centre won the 200 free.

Behind Belmonte in the medleys was another who has spent multiple camps with us, Scotland’s Hannah Miley. Others who are on our wall of fame and who medalled at the meet include Markus Deibler, Erika Villaecija and Aschwin Wildeboer.

Congratulations to all in Poland and we look forward to watching the athletes perform at their Olympic trials early in the new year and then the European long course on the road to London 2012.

The big news of the weeked was Sweden’s Sara Sjostrom’s 53.05 100m free lc from the international meeting in Eindhoven. It is the fastest swim in a textile suit and puts her among the contenders for the Olympic title in London. Sarah and her British coach Carl Jenner were with us at the BEST centre in the summer.

Other BEST Centre regulars, Hannah Miley (Garioch) and David Davies (Cardiff) finished first and third respectively at the meet, and Spain’s Mireia Belmonte, who has swam with us a number of times along with the Spanish national team, won the 800m free to put her third fastest in the world.

2012 here we come…!

The BEST Centre was voted the No.1 Private Sports Factility in November, by the Balearic Association of Sport Facilities, Sport Providers and Sports Professionals. It is a prestigious award on the island given the wealth of sports there like tennis, golf, cycling and sailing.

The award follows Swimming World magazine voting the BEST Centre as one of its top 6 global sites for a training camp earlier this summer.

The BEST Centre is proud to have two European champions training with us this week: Hannah Miley and David Davies.

Hannah, who won the European title in the 400IM in 2010 and silver in the world championships in 2011, is here with her club team Garioch and will stay on after the team leaves to continue her training at the excellent facilities here at the BEST Centre.

Davies, Olympic silver and bronze medallist (10k and 1500m) is also a European champion from 2003 and is here with the powerful City of Cardiff team making a return to the BEST Centre.

We look forward to watching them train in preparation for the Olympic trials in March.

The Uplace Pro Tri Team enjoyed terrific success at one of the key events for the team, the 70.3 Ironman Antwerp where Bart Aernouts won the men’s race for the second year in a row, finishing 3 minutes ahead of Uplace team mate Axel Zeebroek.

Sofie Goos ensured it would be celebrations for Belgium and the Uplace team, winning the women’s event for the 3rd year in a row.

Tine Deckers finished 2nd in Ironman Lake Placid and is now sure of her ticket for IM Hawaii as well.

Bert Jammaer finished 8th in Ironman Frankfurt. For Bert it was his first Ironman of the year after mononucleosis was diagnosed the end of March. Bert is still working his way to full fitness and we look forward to an Ironman win later in the season.

The BEST Centre are proud of their best in class partnership with the Uplace pro tri team.