The Paralympic Council of Ireland (PCI) unveiled Renault Ireland as the official title sponsor of the 2012 Irish Paralympic team in a move that sees the car manufacturer become the first major financial investor from the private sector in the organisation’s history. 

The agreement sees Renault Ireland named as the title sponsor of the Renault Ireland Team 2012 Training Camps programme, which consists of a total of six domestic camps that will take place in the build-up to the Games.

Operating out of Limerick, the Renault Ireland Camps will act as the catalyst in building the Irish team to compete at the London 2012, PCI officials hopes.

The camps are run over four days each time and include a series of timetabled training sessions as well as group information and workshop sessions on various aspects related to the London Games.

A high profile guest speaker usually addresses the entire camp and all the PCI support services such as physiotherapy, massage, video analysis, sports science and sports psychology are available to the sports around the clock.

Liam Harbison, the chief executive of the PCI, said: "We are delighted to have a major, ambitious and successful organisation such as Renault Ireland partner the Irish Paralympic team for what is effectively a home Games in London. 

"Our vision for the partnership is ‘Driving Success’ with the aim of assisting our Paralympic athletes achieve optimum success for Ireland on the global stage.”

Eric Basset, Renault Ireland's managing director, said: "The team at Renault Ireland is right behind the Irish Paralympic team for the 2012 Paralympic Games and we are delighted to support, and be involved with such a fantastic organisation.

"Beijing in 2008 was an outstanding success for Ireland’s Paralympians and we are very proud to be able to assist and support them in driving success for 2012."



Ireland won five medals, including three gold, at Beijing in 2008.

The star of the team was visually-impaired sprinter Jason Smyth (pictured), who won the 100 and 200 metres in the T13 category.

The PCI’s ambitious and detailed London plan has been implemented in full to date with many programmes currently ongoing to support the Irish team’s development.

Such a programme which worked very well in the Beijing cycle was the team familiarisation camp.

In August 2012 the Irish Paralympic team are de to hold their Pre-Games holding camp in Portugal.

They are also planning to hold a Familiarisation Camp at the same location in 2011 so that the athletes and support staff can get to know one another.

The PCI has also initiated a Team Manager Leadership Development Programme and their London Strategy Group is working to develop the local environment strategy for the Games.

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