A FOREST college has scored a top success with the recent official opening of Sports Academy by an ex-Harlem Globetrotter.

Totton College's Sports Academy was declared open by top basketball player Alan Cunningham who now plays for the Solent Stars, after a spell with the internationally renowned Harlem Globetrotters in the USA.

Principal Mark Bramwell said that the idea of the new academy was to allow students to pursue their sporting career whilst simultaneously following a course of academic study, he explained: "In the past students have had to choose between their academic life and their sporting interests. Today the Totton College Sports Academy enables students to have a timetable which accommodates both their academic studies and top quality training alongside fixtures whilst learning about sports psychology, sports injuries, physiotherapy, sports massage and nutrition."

The Academy works as a partnership with top athletes, sports development officers and representatives of local authorities, sports clubs and businesses.

Director of the academy, Kevin Cleary, explained that the idea was launched four years ago and that now the academy is going from strength to strength.

Former Totton student and World Silver Medalist in Indoor Rowing, Pete Fields is now training for the 2004 Olympics at the prestigious Leander Rowing Club.

Sixteen-year-old Tom Barnett from Lymington, who is studying for his A-levels at the college and is a member of the development squad for the Olympic sailing team.

The college have also notched up successes in swimming with the girls team reaching the national finals of the Bazuka Swimming Championships last year and are poised to compete in the 2001 final in February.