The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure 2012 Games Legacy Unit and Belfast City Council have been working closely with Ulster Boxing, Sport Northern Ireland and Queen’s University Belfast to bring the Australian Boxing team to Belfast in July 2012 to acclimatise before heading to the Olympic Games in London.

Belfast has had its fair share of Olympic Boxing medallists including John McNally in the 1952 Helsinki Games and Paddy Barnes winning bronze in Beijing in 2008.

While the Australian boxers are in Belfast they will undoubtedly spend their free time exploring the vibrant city and could uncover the story of Titanic in its birthplace and learn about fellow Australians at a new £97m Titanic Belfast visitor experience opening in March 2012.

Further good news for NI came recently as the Chinese Artistic Gymnastics team are to use Northern Ireland as a Pre-Games Training Camp. The Chinese delegation of thirty will be based at the £1.5 million Salto National Gymnastics Centre in Lisburn for ten days next summer.  Northern Ireland Sports Minister, Caral Ni Chuilin, welcomed the announcement and said she hoped it would inspire "young people to get involved in sport. China is renowned for excellence in gymnastics, topping the medals table at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing with 18 medals." She added "having the best in the world to train locally will raise the profile of the sport and our local facilities.”  The £1.5m Salto training camp in NI will ensure the Chinese gymnasts have the best possible preparation before heading to the Games.

Lord Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, said he had visited Salto on a number of occasions and knew the Chinese Artistic gymnasts would enjoy "being based at one of the best gymnastics facilities in the UK."

For more information visit www.nitb.com/ni2012

Image: 'Titanic Belfast’ visitor attraction – due to open in March 2012.