Olympic duo open school sports centre

Alistair, who finished runner-up in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, and Jonny praised the facilities at the school.

“The facilities at this school are absolutely incredible,” said Jonny.

“We’re very lucky to go round the world and see lots of different facilities and this is the best school I’ve ever been to, the best school sports facilities.”

He added: ”We’re very passionate about kids enjoying doing sport and getting a lot out of sport like we did growing up and they have every opportunity to do that at this school here.”

The Sports Village has six astroturf pitches, eight natural turf pitches and six multi-use courts all of which are floodlit. For the floodlighting alone there’s 101 columns, 604 lights and 480 miles of cable.

The project has taken four years to finish and the consultants involved have hailed it as the largest private and most technologically advanced facility in the north of England.

Alistair added: “The facilities are fantastic here but also people are so important, its teachers that inspired me to do sport especially out of school running it was absolutely crucial.”