Dame Katherine Grainger DBE – Britain’s most decorated female Olympic athlete – has performed the official opening of the new £8.8 million Sports Academy at Hartpury University and Hartpury College.

Now chair of UK Sport, Dame Katherine described the state-of-the-art facility, which further enhances Hartpury’s reputation as a centre of sporting excellence, as “a place where magic will happen”.

The modern building features hi-tech equipment available nowhere else in the UK, specialist technology used by Premier League and NFL clubs in the United States, and a multi-sports hall featuring integrated cameras.

Dame Katherine is the first British woman to win medals at five successive Olympic Games, including gold at London 2012.

She told the 120 guests at the official opening of the Sports Academy: “The feel of this place is unlike anywhere else I have been, and I’ve competed in high-performance sport for 20 years.

The Sports Academy, which further enhances Hartpury’s reputation as a centre of sporting excellence, includes a biomechanics laboratory, rehabilitation suite, a human performance laboratory, and a multi-sports hall.

It provides students at Hartpury with access to the very latest tools for research into sports science, as well as sports training and fitness.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.