Coventry's former Olympic athlete David Moorcroft and Coventry City's chairman Bryan Richardson have released one thousand balloons to mark the opening of the University of Warwick's new £1 million sports pavilion.

Moorcroft was invited in his new capacity as Chief Executive of UK Atheltics and Richardson because Coventry City are using the top of the range new training facilities as the base for the newly-formed Soccer Academy.

Young footballers aged from eight to sixteen train and play matches at the new sports facility under the guidance of Football Association qualified coaches and with their own qualified physiotherapists.

Coventry City players Darren Huckerby, David Burrows and Liam Daish were also at the opening ceremony, which also featured a game between the University and City's youth team.