Ethos declared officially open
Sir Roger Bannister, who broke the four minute mile, officially opened the Ethos Sports Centre last Wednesday, 26 April. Other celebrities present included gold medallists from the 2000 Olympics Men's Eight Rowing team and the former International Olympics Committee Director of Marketing, Michael Payne.
The ceremony was a pleasant change from the delays associated with the unofficial opening to the public, which was planned for the beginning of the academic year but was subsequently delayed by five months.
Events at the opening included water polo matches, fencing, as well climbing demonstrations that showed off the centre in all its glory.
The Rector, Sir Richard Sykes, stressed the importance of "providing a world class educational experience [as well as] guaranteeing a fruitful university experience for the entire College community".
The old sports centre was described by Jessica Upchurch, a Masters student, as being "smelly". The new sports centre, costing £17.5m, includes state-of-the-art technology and "rivals, if not out-competes all sports centres in the area", said Neil Mosley, head of Sport Imperial.
Nick Powell, a first year Civil Engineering student, told Felix that the "equipment in Ethos is much better than you'd get at Fitness First, although queues for the resistance machines can be annoying".
At present, there are already over 8,000 students registered at Ethos who, for the time being, have free use of the fitness gym and swimming pool. It is as yet unknown whether next year there will be a fee for the use of the facilities.
