DARTFORD’S role in winning medals for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympic Games begins today, with the opening of a judo training centre.

The British Judo Performance Institute brings together under one roof for the first time, Britain’s elite judoka, the British Judo coaching team and performance directorate, as well as sport science and medical staff.

Home to Dartford Judo Club, the £4.5m state-of-the-art centre has two full-sized mats, a 400-person capacity, a gym, seminar and meeting spaces, catering facilities and a social area.

Britain’s head coach Patrick Roux says the institute at Dartford will give players the best opportunity to succeed.

He said: “It is a great honour to help build the British Judo Performance system.

“I have observed that Britain has produced some good performance in the past.

“However, for us to reach our Olympic and Paralympic targets we needed to set up a professional centralised environment.”

The institute’s director Margaret Hicks said: “The institute has allowed us to bring together high level expertise to provide the best possible support and delivery to our athletes.

“We want the BJPI to become a hub of excellence and innovation not only for our players, but developing performance coaches and practitioners and also provide a resource for the talent development structures, which underpin performance.”