priDDlE sET for Tall
orDEr aT lonDon 2012
Beijing may be out of the question this year, but, in the Priddle explained how it all
land of the giants, Welshman Gareth priddle believes happened, saying, “I played
his side can stand tall among the competition at the basketball for Wales. Then one
london olympics in four years time. of my friends said they saw an
advert with Steve Redgrave
Bosses in London sent out invitations last year for the high and mighty looking for talented people over
sportsmen and women to give certain disciplines a go. six feet three.
One of those was to create a leading British handball team and, although “When I put in the application,
it may be asking a lot to create a side that can compete with the best they were looking for people to
in the world from scratch, the Brits are coming on leaps and bounds take part in rowing, volleyball and
towards their goals. handball teams. I’d never heard of
Gareth Priddle. Wales’ only
handball.
representative in the Britsh
Handball squad preparing for
Handball is little known in the UK but absolutely enormous on the
the 2012 London Olympics)
Continent. The British commitment to this sport, though, has been so “So I got a trial in Nottingham
focussed that the national squad are all full-time athletes who train in the and made it. I went through other
handball hotbed of Denmark. trials and then went up to Sheffield for an eight-week programme.
Priddle is a former basketball player and Wales Under-20 high jumper so “I came through that and got selected to move out to Denmark in
the transition of his six feet three inch frame into a sport which is a bit January.”
more physical was pretty smooth.
Over in Aarhus, one of the biggest cities in Jutland, their training
facilities and coaching staff are top quality.
Sports & Leisure
Handball is a national obsession there and throwing the British squad
into this arena was a bit like taking rookie footballers and putting them
in with Brazil.
Sports & Golf Clubs
Priddle, who has a leisure and sports management degree from UWIC,
added, “Denmark is the best place for us because its their national sport.
We have top training facilities and some great coaches to work with.
“We have been back in Sheffield during the summer (at the English
Institute of Sport) so, with the stuff we have got and the coaches we
have, I’m very confident.”
Handball is played throughout Europe with Croatia, who beat Germany
in the final, being the reigning men’s team Olympic champions.
Insurance expertise in the Sports and Leisure Industry
The Danes, for their part, have won all three of the most recent
Commercial Policies for Clubs, including Golf, Rugby,
women’s handball gold medals, starting their run in the 1996 Atlanta
Olympics.
Football, Bowls, Tennis, Squash, Fitness, Gyms, Health &
Fitness, Members and Social Clubs. What are the chances of the British team being right up there in
London? “It’s definitely within our reach and, at the rate we are going
For a no obligation quote from our friendly and efficient
at the moment and the amount of people who are saying how good we
are in the timescale we’ve had, anything is possible,” commented the
team please contact us;
Welshman.
Telephone on 01708 777750
And that sort of success would really leave Priddle and the rest of the
23-man British team standing tall and proud in London.
Fax on 01708 777751
e-mail
info@ccventures.co.uk
handball
sportingwales
issue3twothousand&eight
SW_Issue3.indd 31 30/7/08 11:13:42
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