THE INTELLIGENT SPORT® UK CHALLENGE 2010 COMES TO AVIEMORE
PRESS RELEASE 14 JUNE 2010 The Macdonald Aviemore Resort is hosting The Intelligent Sport® UK Challenge event from 16 – 20 June 2010. With over 700 participants, the Challenge is the UK’s largest and most prestigious corporate team development event. The Intelligent Sport® UK Challenge will commence on the evening of Wednesday 16th June and the following 3 days and 4 nights will be filled with adrenalin fuelled action and adventure as 92 teams from UK and European business battle it out for the coveted UK Challenge title in and around Aviemore. Gerry McGee, chief executive, Macdonald Aviemore Resort, said: “This is a very prestigious international event which we are thrilled to be hosting in Scotland at The Macdonald Aviemore Resort. This year’s contestants are in for a treat as the Resort is situated in the heart of The Cairngorm National Park, guaranteeing some of the most breathtaking scenery and fantastic things to do and see. We look forward to congratulating the winning team and finding out their success secrets at the awards ceremony on Saturday night.” The UK’s largest and most prestigious corporate team development event from 16 – 20 June is Intelligent Sport®’s flagship event and is hosted just once a year. Now in its tenth year, the challenge will push the best UK business minds and bodies to their very limits with Intelligent Sport®’s three fundamental principles in mind: strategy, intelligence and teamwork. Through the various missions or ‘stages’ that make up the event, teams will be put to the test mentally and physically, running, cycling and canoeing to complete their missions ahead of their competition. The event will culminate on Saturday evening with an awards ceremony and well deserved party at the event’s host; the Macdonald Aviemore Resort. The Intelligent Sport® UK Challenge comes to Aviemore and the Cairngorms National Park to not only provide a tough test for the hardened adventure racer taking part, but also for the beautiful and varied setting for this massive event which has taken 8 months to put together. This year the course designers have been working overtime to design a challenge fitting for the location. Amy Whiteley is the Course Director at Intelligent Sport®, and it is with fiendish cunning and imagination that she and her team lay out the competition’s stages. “One of the absolute best bits of my job is spending several weeks on recce’s to hunt down the most beautiful spots that the area has to offer and design a course that truly shows off the scenery to our competitors,” Amy says. “The Cairngorms National Park has been a dream to work in – normally, finding the variety of terrain that we need to fill the event is a huge challenge but this year, the real challenge has been how to whittle down the list of potential options. One minute you can be in a higgledy-piggledy natural forest, the next minute on vast moorland in cool, crisp air, and only a short while later on the shores of a loch. And everywhere you look there are the mountains in the background. I’ve totally fallen in love with the place. We’ve also found that the local estate owners have been hugely accommodating, so we’re hoping to forge relationships that will enable us to return to the area in years to come.” Among some of the top names in global business taking part, there are several teams hoping to capitalise on “home” advantage this year including Registers of Scotland, Scottish Widows, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Front Line Construction and RAF Lossiemouth. With nearly 1,000 staff and participants making the Macdonald Aviemore Resort home for the next several days, Challenger World, the organisers who are part of IMG UK Ltd, feel that this year has a very special feeling to it. “Having hosted these events across the world from Pennsylvania to Nice, Donegal and Mayrhofehen, coming to Aviemore for the 2010 Intelligent Sport® UK Challenge is a real treat. With many of the stages and tasks set within the Cairngorms National Park’s ancient woodlands, nature reserves, wilderness areas and of course, those wonderful mountains, a real sense of something special is in the air,” comments Challenger World Managing Director; Nick Rusling. “It is a real pleasure to be able to hold this event in Aviemore and even after all the years we have been running these events, I think this one is going to be the most awe inspiring yet.” There will be daily updates and results posted from the event, for further information visit: www.ukchallenge.co.uk Ends For further information and/or images contact: Julia Warne - Marketing and PR Manager, Intelligent Sport®: +44 (0)7809 548 124 / julia.warne@imgworld.com Jane Maher - PR Account Director, DENVIR +44 (0)7789 225 171 / jane@denvirmarketing.com Notes to editor: About Intelligent Sport® Intelligent Sport® is widely celebrated cutting edge team development concept. Specifically designed for business, the Intelligent Sport® concept combines the thrills of adventure sport with strategic challenges and real business competition. Its primary aim is to give companies and their key people first-hand experience of the power of teamwork, drawing on strategy, intellect and physical ability, resulting in development of core business skills and providing inspiration that makes the difference to performance back in the workplace. For more information, visit www.intelligentsport.com About IMG Mass Participation Sports IMG Mass Participation Sports is highly experienced in successfully staging mass participation events in the UK including the London Triathlon (the world’s largest triathlon), Blenheim Triathlon, Etape Caledonia (the UK’s only closed roads mass participation cycling event) and Run to the Beat (London’s music half marathon) plus international events including the Barcelona Triathlon and the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon. About IMG Sports & Entertainment Operating in 30 countries, IMG Sports & Entertainment’s diverse businesses include: consulting services; event ownership and management; fashion events and models representation; licensing; golf course design; and client representation in golf, tennis, broadcasting, speakers, European football, rugby, cricket, motor sports, coaching, Olympic and action sports. IMG Academies are the world's largest, multi-sport training and educational facilities, delivering world-class training experiences to more than 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult, and professional athletes each year. About Macdonald Aviemore Resort The Macdonald Aviemore Resort lies in the heart of Aviemore and the Cairngorms National Park. With something for everyone, the Resort includes four hotels and 18 luxury woodland lodges, a selection of high quality restaurants, The Spey Valley Championship Golf Course, The Vital Spa and Gym, The Spey Valley Cinema and the child friendly Leisure Arena with swimming pool, flumes, wave machine and the Aviemore Adventure Club. The conference facilities at Macdonald Aviemore Resort include a specialist event management team, a 650 seater auditorium, flexible 1,000m² Osprey Arena, the Perigrine Suite which can sit over 300 for Lunch or Dinner, 8 individual meeting rooms for up to 100 delegates and catering for up to 850 which is always delivered to the highest standard. Facilities also include a private bar, free onsite car parking for up to 600 cars, PA system and microphones, multi-channel mixing desk, staging, wireless internet access and 420 ensuite twin/double bedrooms. About the Cairngorms National Park The Cairngorms National Park officially opened on the 1st September 2003 and is the UK's largest at 3800 square km (1400 square miles). Stretching from Grantown-on-Spey in the north to the heads of the Angus Glens in the south and from Ballater in the east to Dalwhinnie and Laggan in the west the park covers roughly 10% of Scotland. It is home to a quarter of Scotland's native woodland and is a refuge for a host of rare plants and creatures, including 25% of the UK's threatened species. The National Park takes in some of the most spectacular landscapes in Britain, from the wild tundra of the high mountain tops to the wind-rocked seclusion of the ancient pinewoods. Heather moor, vivid with summer colour, and grand glens, haunt of red deer and golden eagle, are just some of the other habitats within the park.
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