The first new-build 2012 Olympic venue to be completed - the Lee Valley White Water Centre near Waltham Cross, Herfordshire - has been officially opened.

HRH The Princess Royal unveiled the canoeing and rafting facilities at the venue, which will host canoe slalom events during the London Games. Lee Valley Regional Park Authority will own and operate the centre before and after the Olympics, with the public able to use the facilities from April 2011.

Facilities at the FaulknerBrowns Architects-designed venue include an Olympic-standard 300m competition course and a 160m intermediate/training course. A 10,000sq m (107,639sq ft) finish lake and a facility building with changing rooms, café, spectator viewing area and office space also comprised the scheme.

Morrison Construction built the new venue, with S&P Architects working as the delivery designers for the project. Olympic Delivery Authority chair John Armitt said: "As the first brand new 2012 venue we have finished, it is a clear sign of the early legacy the Games are already delivering.

"Seeing canoeists and rafters use the courses for the first time gives us a glimpse of the excitement we can expect here in 2012." Image: ODA/Steve Bates