London Latest - New Legacy Body Begins Work; Water Polo Arena Complete

New Legacy Corporation Begins Work

The newly formed London Legacy Development Corporation on Monday took over responsibility for the ongoing regeneration and development of the Olympic Park in east London.

It continues the work of the Olympic Park Legacy Company through promoting physical, social, environmental and economic regeneration of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The corporation also broadens this remit to take on a wider area, backed by statutory powers.

Planning powers for the park and surrounding area will transfer from London Thames Gateway Development Corporation and the Olympic Delivery Authority in October.

The development corporation will be a ‘single point of contact’ for regeneration – landowner, developer, planning authority and investor – and is accountable to Londoners through the office of Mayor Boris Johnson.

Andrew Altman, CEO of the corporation, said the new legacy company "will ensure we deliver our vision for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and surrounding areas and bring benefits to London in the long term.

"This is the next step in the legacy story. The Development Corporation’s wider remit and powers will provide much needed certainty to the private sector to continue their investment in the Park and East London, with the opportunities generated from this benefitting local communities."

The corporation's targets for the remainder of 2012 include: announce plans for the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park; announce an anchor tenant for the press and broadcast centers; confirm the additional uses for the Olympic stadium; launch a bidding process for events and attractions on the park; begin work on the post-Games transformation phase of the park called ‘Clear, Connect and Complete’.

Already six of the eight permanent venues have their future secured, with the remaining two to be completed this summer.

Water Polo Arena Complete

Construction of the 5,000-seat water polo arena is now complete, one month before its London 2012 test event.

The temporary venue, which has a silver-colored wrap and an inflatable roof, will stage the Olympic men’s and women’s water polo competitions. It is located next to the aquatics center on the Olympic Park site. Post-Games, the venue will be dismantled with some elements reused elsewhere in the U.K.

Dennis Hone, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, said: "Completing the construction of the Water Polo Arena marks the end of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s major venue work on the Olympic Park.

"The unique sloping roof design makes it instantly recognizable and, as with all our venues, huge efforts have gone into both sustainability and ensuring we don’t build venues that have no use after the Games."

LOCOG has now begun work to fit-out the venue ready to host the May 3-6 test event, the Visa Water Polo International.Tickets go on sale Tuesday via Ticketmaster.

Mexico, Honduras Book Olympic Tickets

Mexico and Honduras have punched their tickets for the London Olympics men's football tournament after making the final of CONCACAF qualifying.

Mexico beat Canada 3-1 and Honduras edged El Salvado 3-2 after extra-time in the other semi-final.

It means Mexico will be competing at their 10th Olympics; the last time was Athens 2004. Honduras have qualified for only their third Games.

"I feel very happy. We've got the ticket to the Olympics," Mexico coach Luis Fernando Tena was quoted on CONCACAF's website. "It is a very good generation of players we have here.

"When you're the coach of the national team, you get a lot of criticism, so you have to be ready for criticism. We were able to win the Pan American [Games] gold medal. A lot of good things have happened to us. I am very, very happy for the players. I think we deserved it."

Honduran coach Luis Fernando Suarez told the confederation's website: "We are very satisfied and happy that we won, but I also want to continue, for our team to take the next game seriously even though we're in and qualified."

The U-23 CONCACAF men's Olympic qualifying final is held tonight at 8pm EST.

Last week, New Zealand beat Fiji to qualify as Oceania's representative at the men's Olympics football tournament, which kicks off on July 25.

Only one place is still to be decided at the 16-nation event.

Oman take on Senegal in Coventry, England on April 23, an intercontinental play-off to book the last berth at the Games.

The 15 nations to have sealed their places at London 2012 are: Mexico, Honduras, Gabon, Morocco, Egypt, Spain, Switzerland, Belarus, Brazil, Uruguay, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and United Arab Emirates, with Great Britain qualifying by right as hosts.

Football Ferns Near Olympic Berth

New Zealand enters this week’s return leg of the Olympic qualifying final for Oceania with an 8-0 lead over Papua New Guinea.

The Football Ferns scored four goals in each half of Saturday’s first leg in Whangarei and allowed PNG only one shot on goal.

Barring a collapse Wednesday, they’ll secure Oceania’s berth in London and advance to the 12-team tournament for a second straight Summer Games.

Men’s Water Polo Qualifying

Water polo’s Olympic qualification tournament for men opens a team short in Edmonton, Canada after Venezuela withdrew Saturday.

Turkey, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and the hosts are left in Group B with Montenegro, Germany, Greece, Macedonia, Romania and the Netherlands competing in Group A.

The top four finishers from each will advance to Friday’s quarterfinals in Edmonton, Canada with an Olympic berth going to each of the four winners. They’ll join Great Britain, Serbia, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, USA, Kazakhstan and Australia at London 2012.

The qualification tournament for women runs April 15 to 22 in Trieste, Italy.

Asian Wrestling Qualifying

Japan was the big winner at the Asian Olympic Qualifying tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan nabbing seven of the available 36 spots. Japan won the most medals out of all the Asian teams in wresting at the Beijing Olympics.

In all, ten countries qualified wrestlers for the 2012 Olympics. Uzbekistan will send the second largest team to the Games with 6 athletes.

A full list of qualified wrestlers can be found by clicking here.

Written by Mark Bisson, Matthew Grayson and Ed Hula III.

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