MOST employers would be delighted to have just one Olympic hopeful among their ranks… but one Suffolk council can boast two.

MOST employers would be delighted to have just one Olympic hopeful among their ranks… but one Suffolk council can boast two.

St Edmundsbury Borough Council has drawn up plans to help spot individuals in the borough with international sporting potential and to give them the support they need to succeed.

It hopes to work with other organisations in Suffolk to field a contingent of local talent at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

And it's already found two simply by going over its payroll list.

Bus station assistant Brian Alldis should be reaching his athletic peak by 2012, and this year the 21-year-old represented his country in Osaka for the World Athletics Championships in the 1,500m wheelchair race.

He is joined by disabled basketball talent Caroline Maclean, who works on the front desk of the council's offices in Haverhill and is also a hot contender for a place in the UK's disabled basketball team for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

Mr Alldis said the council was already offering him enormous amounts of support in allowing him to combine work with his rigorous training regimen.

“They are a fantastic employer and I would not be where I am without them. It is really hard combining my training and work but the shifts I do work around me really well,” said Mr Alldis, of Mayfield Road, Bury St Edmunds.

He has worked for the council for five y0ears and currently trains six days a week, often twice a day. He said it was very unusual to find two Olympic hopefuls in just one organisation.

Ms Maclean's GB women's wheelchair basketball team has just qualified for next year's Beijing Olympics and Paralympics and she too is hoping she'll still be in the squad by 2012.

And she too has nothing but praise for the council as an employer. “It is hard working and training but the council is brilliant - I've been able to use the sports hall and gym before work and after.”