Information about the High Altitude Training Centre: Gijima Dullstroom! The long awaited High Altitude Training Center is one step closer to Dullstroom. The Mpumalanga Government recently allocated R2 million towards the completion of a feasibility study for this project, earmarked for the village and the surrounding towns of the new Highlands Municipality - Belfast, Machadodorp and Waterval-Boven. The Gijima Trust (zulu for "running") has been formed and as soon as the four towns have appointed their representatives, work will begin. The feasibility study will focus on Dullstroom as the center of a multi-faceted sport complex, with satellite functions in the other towns. " We truly believe that the project will benefit the entire area," says Dullstroom Town Clerk Jurie Maas. A committee, consisting of officials from each town, with sound representation of each Chamber of Commerce, will be appointed to assist the Gijima Trust with research and logistics to ensure that the whole area is utilized. This could mean that the runners would be in Dullstroom, the rowers in Belfast and the cyclists in Waterval-Boven. The Center has been a dream since the first Olympic athletes came to train in Dullstroom some four years ago. World known ice skater Bart Veldkamp and his team mates, spent a month in the town and surrounds, preparing for the Olympics. On his return to Holland, Bart started a serious campaign for Dullstroom. The benefits of Dullstroom's high altitude (2100 m above sea level), fresh air and homely accommodation, were broadcasted in press and on the Internet. A group of final year engineering students of the Delft University, did a comprehensive feasibility study, officially handed over to South Africa's ambassador in Holland. The publicity spread to the Scandinavian countries, where the Olympic committees of Norway, Finland, and Denmark offered support for athletes to train in Dullstroom. Earlier this year no less than five groups came to train in Dullstroom: the Dutch women's cycling team, the Finnish national athletics team, Norwegian cyclists and athletes and long distance runner and orienteering champion Carsten Jorgenson from Denmark. Olympics co-ordinators Rolf Saeterdal and Heiki Kantola from Norway and Finland have become regular visitors to the town. The complex would draw the wide range of endurance sportsmen, offering everything an Olympic athlete or serious sportsman would need - from training facilities to accommodation, conference and medical facilities and the huge infrastructure that would support an average of 200 athletes at any given time. According to Mpumalanga MEC for the Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Siphoseswe Masango, the project is seen not only as a draw card for the Highlands Municipality but for the entire Mpumalanga province. Nocsa have also indicated their support.