OLYMPIC hero Steven Burke said he was ‘honoured’ after the new state-of-the-art fitness centre at Nelson and Colne College was named after him.

Cyclist Steven, a former student at the college, was joined at the grand opening of the new sports facilities by local sporting heroes tri-athlete Charlotte Edwards and Commonwealth gold medallist in gymnastics Craig Heap.

The sports facilities, which have been overhauled as part of an extensive multi-million pound new build and refurbishment programme, boasts a brand new six-court sports hall as well as the state-of-the-art fitness centre.

Steven said: “I was really honoured to be invited back to my old college and to have the new fitness centre named after me is pretty awesome. The facilities look brilliant.

“I have very good memories of the college. They were always really good to me with my cycling and let me go on trips with the team as long as I caught up with my coursework.”

The event was attended by college students, staff and pupils from local schools, who were entertained with a presentation by gymnast Craig.

Having already enjoyed success in the world of gymnastics, Craig is now concentrating on passing on his knowledge to young people and inspiring them to fulfil their true potential.

Craig explained to students that in order to reach his true potential he had to show extreme dedication.

And Charlotte added that studying full time at college in addition to keeping on top of her training programme was ‘difficult, but worth the effort.’ Other Nelson and Colne College students, enjoying great success this year, include Jessica Duffy, Katie Pollard and Sammy Horsfield, who has been selected to play football for the North West in British College Sport (BCS) events.

Lyn Surgeon, headteacher at the college, said: “We are extremely proud to count Steven as one of our ex-pupils and we were delighted that he agreed to us naming our new fitness centre after him.

“Steven is a great role model and we hope his inspirational story will encourage our students and allow them to see that their dreams are achievable if they are willing to work hard.”