Pioneering Chinese Olympic hopeful visits Amersham (From Bucks Free Press)

Pioneering Chinese Olympic hopeful visits Amersham

8:43am Monday 30th January 2012 in Amersham By Andy Carswell

Cllr Martin Tett with Alex Hua Tian

CHINA'S first-ever equestrian Olympic three day event hopeful paid a visit to one of Bucks' training camps.

With less than six months to go until the start of the 2012 Games Alex Hua Tian was at the Shardeloes Equestrian Centre on Wednesday to take a look at the facilities.

He moved his 11 horses there in November in preparation for the London games and came to have a look at how they were getting on before jetting off to Spain for a warm-up competition.

Whilst at Shardeloes he met Buckinghamshire County Council Leader Cllr Martin Tett - himself a keen equestrian in his younger days - and one of Amersham's county representatives, Cllr Martin Phillips.

Cllr Tett said: "I'm really pleased that as a host county for the Games, we're welcoming competitors from other nations to help them prepare for their events. And I love the way so many of our residents have become Games volunteers to help provide a real Buckinghamshire welcome to visitors in the summer."

Buckinghamshire is home to 23 training camps, and will welcome around 30,000 spectators a day to Dorney Lake where rowing, canoeing and adaptive canoeing events take place during the Games.

The county has a special place in Games history, as the birthplace of the Paralympic movement at Stoke Mandeville, and will host four community live-sites where more than 10,000 residents will be able to watch Games events on huge video screens.