National backing for Medway athletes
|
A national charity which has helped some of Great Britain's greatest ever Olympians is to offer financial support to Medway's leading athletes in an exciting new partnership. SportsAid (www.sportsaid.org.uk/), whose past beneficiaries include 18 of the 19 Team GB gold medallists from Beijing, is to treble the financial support available to athletes on Medway Council’s elite athlete support programme. |
|
The aim is to help Medway’s young athletes aged 12 to 18 reach their potential at national and international level and to raise their profile nationally.
In the first partnership of its kind between the charity and a local authority in the south-east and one of only a handful of such arrangements in the whole country, SportsAid will make a grant of £500 to support eligible Medway athletes who already receive £250 of funding support from the council.
Medway’s elite athlete support programme, which was launched in September 2007, also provides athletes with sports science and therapy support from the University of Kent at Medway and free access to council-run leisure facilities, plus increased local athletes’ media and sporting profile.
|
|
The additional funding will assist athletes with travel, training, accommodation, competition fees and equipment costs. To qualify, athletes currently not on World Class Lottery programmes must be nominated by their sport’s governing body. As part of the new partnership, Medway Council will also be able to identify potentially eligible athletes. |
Medway 2012 manager Bob Dimond said: “We are delighted to be joining up with SportsAid to deliver even greater support to Medway’s young elite athletes.
“Medway is creating the facilities and the environment in which its best sports men and women can reach the top of their chosen sports, and this endorsement from SportsAid highlights the success of our athlete support and will further raise the profile and aspirations of our future stars.”
|
SportsAid was established in 1976 to support the next generation of sporting talent to succeed. It channels funds from the commercial sector into the country's aspiring athletes, supporting athletes who do not receive Lottery funding. Past recipients include five-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave, Medway International Sporting Ambassador Steve Backley, plus Beijing gold medal-winning cyclists Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton, and sailors Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy. |
Back to August 2008 news