Multi-Olympic medallist cyclist Dame Laura Kenny is latest famous face to sign petition for new West Midlands Velodrome
Three of the biggest names in British Cycling have given their backing to a campaign to build a velodrome in the West Midlands.
On Sunday, December 7, multi-Olympic and World track champion, Dame Laura Kenny, became the latest star to put her name to the petition which has now received more than 10,290 verified signatures.
Dame Laura’s backing follows that of 2015 Elite World Road Race champion Lizzie Deignan MBE and Matt Richardson, who recently set the 200m flying start world record 8.942 seconds and is now known as ‘the fastest man in the world'.
Campaigner Charlie Dickens, who administers the petition 'Build a West Midlands Velodrome' on change.org, said: “We are incredibly grateful to these great cycling champions for giving their backing. If we are successful in getting the velodrome, it is possible it might be located within the Black Country.”
Quoted on the fundraising page, Brian Cookson OBE, former President of the Union Cycliste Internationale between 2013 and 2017, said: “I am absolutely certain that Birmingham deserves and needs a velodrome of its own.
"Cycling is a wonderful sport and pastime, and the West Midlands region has always produced cyclists of the highest levels of ability, but without modern facilities of the requisite standard, future generations will miss out.”
The petition was initially set up to push for a velodrome to be built in time for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Kay Godwin Jones, daughter of the late track cyclist Tommy Godwin, an Olympic Games medallist in 1948 who worked in Birmingham, said: “Tommy’s greatest wish prior to his death 2012, having been one of Birmingham’s Olympic ambassadors was that there should be a velodrome in the Birmingham area."
Other successful cyclists with ties to the West Midlands include four-time World Champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Hugh Porter MBE (from Wolverhampton), multiple-World Championship medallist Jess Varnish (Bromsgrove), national champion Andrew Tennant (Wolverhampton), and Tour de France yellow jersey winner Ben Healy (Wordsley).
