Where is it?: Station Road, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire.
How do you get there?: Road or rail offer the only real options of getting to the centre, which is located in the River Lee Country Park midway between Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire and Waltham Abbey in Essex, and around nine miles north of the Olympic Park in London. If you are travelling by train, Cheshunt is the nearest National Rail station. You can then either walk to the centre, which is 20 minutes away, or take a shuttle bus. If you are travelling by car, the centre is situated just off the A121, but you will need to use a park-and-ride service to reach it.
Capacity: 12,000.
What events will be held there and when?: Canoe slalom (July 29-August 2).
Public facilities: There is a terraced cafe bar overlooking the courses.
History: The £31million centre, which opened last spring, was the first new Olympic venue to be completed and the only one available to the general public before the Games. It includes two floodlit canoe slalom courses — a 300-metre competition circuit with a drop of 5.5m and a 160m training circuit with a descent of 1.6m, both of which are pump-fed from a 10,000 square metre lake — as well as a building that houses a cafe bar, changing rooms, offices and a meeting room. There will also be temporary seats for the Games, but these will be dismantled afterwards, when the centre will become a white-water rafting, canoeing and kayaking facility for the local community.
