Team GB athletes fly to Cyprus holding camp

A TOTAL of 80 athletes and training staff hopped on board a Cyprus Airways flight from Heathrow yesterday, making their way to Paphos where the British team will make its final preparations before the Athens Olympics next month.

Cyprus Airways is the British Olympic Organisation’s official carrier for the games.

On board the flight were over 40 ‘Team GB’ athletes bound for the BOA’s Holding Camp in Paphos, their final stop before the Olympic Games.

After a light breakfast, including Weetabix cereal bars, served in a private lounge, swimmers, sailors and archers, including Sydney Gold medallist Ben Ainslie and World Champion backstroker Katy Sexton, boarded the Cyprus Airways plane to Paphos.

Simon Clegg, Chief Executive of the BOA said: “We are delighted that our first group of athletes are heading off to Cyprus to their holding camp. We wish them all well as they make their final preparations before the Athens Olympic Games. We are pleased to be working with Cyprus Airways, the official carrier of Team GB, as this has enabled our athletes to fly out at convenient times, because of the frequency of their flights.”

Andreas Agathou, Regional Manager of Cyprus Airways, said: “We are delighted to be the official carrier for the 2004 British Olympic Team. Our best wishes accompany the British athletes as they make their final preparations in Cyprus.”

President Tassos Papadopoulos yesterday opened the £1.2 million Olympic Swimming Pool in Yeroskipou, which will play host to British and Cypriot swimmers in the run up to the big games.

“I think it is easy to understand the promotion of Cyprus as a destination for athletic tourism in the United Kingdom and in other countries,” said Papadopoulos during the opening of the state-of-the-art swimming structure.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.