Great Britain star Julie Page believes she is in the perfect place to fine-tune her preparations for London 2012.

The Stockport-born forward has signed for Polish club Energa Torun – and is sure her time there will leave her in perfect condition for the Olympic Games.

Page, who has played professionally in Germany, Italy and France, has emerged as one of GB’s key players in recent years and is confident a testing season in the high-quality Polish League will set her up for the summer of a lifetime next year.

Forward

“For club teams in Europe I have played guard and for GB I play forward, so I had to think about what the best preparation for London 2012 would be,” said the 6ft 2in post ace.

“Torun have given me the chance to play in my GB position, so I will mostly be playing in the four spot and it will be great.

“The league has some big players to test myself against and I’ll need it because there will be some huge players at the Games next year. There is another big girl at the club so training will be testing too, so I can get a real feel for the position.”

Page will be in tip-top shape physically too. “The club have a world champion body building coach for strength and conditioning, which is something other club’s who made me offers in the summer didn’t have,” she added.

“With that, and the individual GB programme we work to, I can be in the best shape possible for next summer.

“My goal is to do the best I can for Torun while I am here, but the whole focus is obviously on London 2012.

“We will be coming up against teams that have been together for four years in London and we have only known we were going to be taking part for a short while, so everything we do between now and then is geared to making sure we can match up to them.”

Page’s move to Poland came about in a flash after a summer that saw her take part in Eurobasket in the country.

“I am a bit familiar with the country after being here for Eurobasket,” said the 28 year-old added.

“It is a beautiful town and a good set-up. Everyone either speaks English or German and I speak German well so there are no communication problems.

“I signed on Thursday last week, flew out on Friday then played on Saturday.

“I was just expecting to suit-up and not play, but I played 30 minutes and got 23 points and six rebounds, so that was a great start to my Polish League season from a personal view.”

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