A Swimwear company has become the latest Derbyshire firm to win gold at the Olympic Games.

BlueSeventy, which has its global sales office in Derby, helped Dutch swimming ace Maarten van der Weijden win gold in the men's 10k swim. Van der Weijden, who finished ahead of Britain's silver medallist David Davies, was wearing a swimsuit provided by BlueSeventy, which has offices at the Schoolhouse Business Centre, in London Road, Wilmorton.
But it was not immediately obvious that the suit worn by the Dutch ace in Thursday's race was a BlueSeventy outfit. Dean Jackson, the firm's sales and marketing manager, said: "A lot of the teams sign deals with manufacturers which mean that they have to wear their products. The Dutch team were sponsored by Nike but Maarten persuaded the team to let him use our swimsuit because he felt it would make him faster.

"So even though he was wearing a BlueSeventy swimsuit when he crossed the finish line, all the BlueSeventy logos had to be removed because of the team's agreement with Nike. What is gratifying is that here you have an athlete who has put aside money and sponsorship agreements and simply focused on giving himself the best chance of winning. Maarten is also a particularly special individual after fighting back from cancer to compete in the games."

BlueSeventy supplied a number of athletes at the Olympics with its BlueSeventy Nero swimsuit. The company currently has some of its representatives in Beijing working with swimmers and letting them try out their suit. Among them is sponsorship manager Guy Crawford.

Speaking from Beijing, Mr Crawford said: "We've had an incredible time here. Maarten's gold medal was just the icing on the cake."

Heanor firm Advanced Composites made some of the lightweight parts for the bikes belonging to Britain's cycling team, which notched up an incredible 14 medals, seven of them gold.

On Tuesday, it was revealed  that Draycott engineering firm EPM Technology had made the oars and paddles which powered Britain's Olympic rowers and canoeists to a haul of seven medals, including two golds.

Source: Derby Evening Telegraph

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