Bobsleigh

The British Bobsleigh Association today (Friday 3rd February 2006) announced a £165k sponsorship deal with a consortium headed by Lyrica and 3aIT. The "keys" to the first £50k tranche of a communications system were presented to the Team, including state of the art mobile computing provided by Toshiba and telephony equipment provided by 3aIT.

The "3a-Comms" system has put the Team on the right track to Turin, and is tipped to have a significant impact on the Team's prospects for Vancouver 2010.

The presentation was made by Councillor Jean Burnham, Chairman Horsham District Council, with Simon Meade OBE, Sponsorship Director of the British Bobsleigh Association and Roger Clark, CEO of Lyrica.

Lyrica has designed and 3aIT has built a web-based system to enable the team to keep in touch with each other, their specialist coaches, their headquarters and their families while they travel around the world during their 5 month tour of ice training and competition. The same 3a-Comms System enables World Class athletes to train at home during the off-season with daily on-line training schedules, feedback and monitoring.

Great Britain is pre-eminent amongst "non-ice nations" - with a long history of success in World Championships and Olympics - including Gold for Dixon and Nash in 1964 and Bronze for Sean Olsson's 4-Man in 1998. Indeed Bobsleigh was invented by British tourists on holiday in St Moritz in the late 1890s. With the British public's warm attachment for the sport of Bobsleigh, eyes will be on Minichiello and Davies as the best medal prospects this time round.

Roger Clark, the CEO of Lyrica cites the professionalism of the Elite athletes as the hook that secured his companies' involvement. "Bobsleigh is infectious - there's no doubt about that, and it's an outstanding vehicle for corporate hospitality with tangible returns on sponsorship investment. But primarily our decision was based on the belief that - given the right support - we have in our top athletes the ability to take on the world. If World Class Performance requires world class support services then Lyrica, 3aIT and their partners are committed to delivering those services for the next 5 years."

Lyrica organises sponsorship, marketing and recruitment materials and events for the British Team, working closely with IT partners 3aIT, Print Sponsors Foundry Press of Horsham, PR Sponsors PMW of Billingshurst and Education Partner Chichester College.

For further information visit www.BobteamGB.org