The new British Judo Centre of Excellence is to be officially opened by Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis OBE.

The heptathlete, who won a gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, will officially open the centre, on Tuesday, November 12, at the University of Wolverhampton’s Walsall Campus.

The opening will take in a tour of the British Judo’s dedicated new facility as well as other parts of the campus, including accommodation, laboratories and sports centre.

There will also be judo demonstrations and the second of British Judo’s National Randori sessions taking place.

As well as being a day of celebration for British Judo, marking the launch of the home of the association’s performance programme, it will also put the university at the forefront of judo training nationwide.

The centre will play a key part in nurturing of the country’s best players in years to come, as it focuses on delivering a centralised training programme to the British Judo Association’s junior and transition athletes aged between 17 and 22 years old. It will also provide a facility for athletes on the semi-centralised programme.

November’s opening is the culmination of a process which began at the start of this year. Following the independent performance review, one of the key recommendations was to establish a Centre of Excellence for the sport in England to complete British Judo’s performance network.

In May, the University of Wolverhampton was selected as the venue for the centre and work began on the project. Initially time was spent preparing the building and working on the structural elements and in the final few weeks, the state-of-the-art dojo, which will be used exclusively by the British Judo Association has really come to fruition.

Tuesday 5th November will see the centre host its inaugural National Randori, taking place between 19:30-21:30. This open randori session is available to all junior and senior players who feel they are at a level to attend (14 and above).

Words by Donna Richardson. All image rights reserved by M&CSaatchiMerlin.