News | Thursday, 11th July 2019

Top international netball teams use University as training base ahead of World Cup

England and Australia enjoyed training sessions at the Platt Lane Sports Complex

Two world-leading netball teams have used Manchester Metropolitan’s Platt Lane Sports Complex as a training venue ahead of the Vitality Netball World Cup.

Australia and England – rated first and third respectively in the global rankings – enjoyed a number of private training sessions at the Fallowfield venue.

It is already home to current Super League champions Manchester Thunder who train weekly in the sports hall at Platt Lane (pictured below), and whose team include two Manchester Met sport scholars – Paige Kindred and Rebecca Airey.

Paige and Rebecca both play for Thunder alongside their studies and were part of the squad which this year was crowned champions.

James Cooley, Platt Lane’s manager, said: “The site here at Platt Lane has received a large amount of investment since Manchester Metropolitan took over in 2014 with no area more so than our state-of-the-art sports hall.

“We are really excited to have some of the top ranked teams in the world use Platt Lane as their pre-world cup training venue, which highlights the quality of the sports facilities we have here at the University.

“This coupled with us providing the official training venue for the current Super League Champions, Manchester Thunder, really showcases us as an elite sporting venue.”

Platt Lane Sports Complex is where many of the University’s student sports clubs train and play and offers a variety of top quality pitches, a fully equipped gym, a range of fitness classes and, maintaining the site’s football heritage, a number of football coaching sessions to suit all ages.

All of England’s and Australia’s training sessions were closed to the public.

Sixteen countries are participating in the Vitality Netball World Cup, which runs from July 12 until July 21 at the M&S Bank Arena Liverpool, in Liverpool city centre.