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London Basketball Arena finished

 

London Basketball Arena finished

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AOC
London Basketball Arena finished

London Olympic Park is taking shape with four venues now built more than a year before the Games.

London Olympic Park is taking shape with four venues now built more than a year before the Games.

The Olympic Delivery Authority announced Thursday that its work on the Basketball Arena is done. The venue will now be handed over to LOCOG for overlay before its test event, the first for an Olympic Park facility.

The national teams of Great Britain, Australia, China, Croatia, France and Serbia will square off from Aug. 16 to 21 in the London International Basketball Invitational.

The temporary arena, one of the largest ever for an Olympics, will host basketball prelims and women’s quarterfinals during the Games as well as men’s quarterfinals, all semifinals and all medal matches for handball. Wheelchair basketball and rugby will be staged there during the Paralympics.

The building will be dismantled after competition to be reused elsewhere.

Also London Olympic Park’s recently completed Handball Arena is already delivering in legacy mode.

The same schoolchildren who will use the venue after the Games were allowed Thursday to hit the court alongside members of Great Britain’s national team.

“Seeing it being used by the British athletes that will compete here in London 2012 and the schoolchildren that will make the most of the arena after the Games really brings it to life,” Olympic Delivery Authority CEO Dennis Hone said in a statement.

The arena will host men’s and women’s handball prelims during the Games as well as the fencing portion of modern pentathlon. Goalball will be staged there during the Paralympics.

In legacy mode, the venue will accommodate a range of indoor sports due to its retractable lower tier of seating.

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