sportscotland sows seeds of success

Thursday 16 November 2000

"International success is dependent both on helping to support our top athletes and continually nurturing new generations of sporting talent."

That was the message from sportscotland Chief Executive Ian Robson, announcing the latest round of Talented Athlete Programme awards from sportscotland Lottery Fund.

Eight sports are to benefit this month from awards totalling over £300,000.  Among the next generation of sports stars receiving Lottery awards are:

• Scottish no. 1 800m runner Alasdair Donaldson.  23 year old Alasdair, who is the British U23 no.1 and British senior no. 4, this year achieved a time less than one second outside the Olympic qualifying standard.  His award of £13,615 will enable him to take time off work to concentrate fully on training.
• 16 year old Aileen Wilson, whose height in the high jump in this year's Commonwealth Youth Games ranked her second in the Scottish senior rankings and 11th in the UK senior rankings, although she is still competing at junior level.
• Scottish no.1 hammer thrower Mhairi Walters, still only 19, who set a new senior Scottish record of 55.10m in May this year.
  Also receiving awards under the programme are athletes who have already established themselves as Britain’s best: British no. 2 long jumper Darren Ritchie who this year produced a Scottish record of 7.88m and hill runner Angela Mudge, winner of the World Hill Trophy in Borneo this year.

Other sports benefiting this month are bowling, cricket, orienteering and weightlifting.

Ian Robson continued:  "This month’s Talented Athlete awards represent the range of talent that exists throughout the age groups. 

"sportscotland is continually working to provide a pathway to create more world class athletes, from providing funding for programmes to get people more active, to recognising and developing sporting talent at an early age, to providing support to help sustain high performance."

Also announced today was an award of £73,700 for the fourth year of Tayside Sports Development Group’s IMPACT programme.  The money will help to cover the costs of training, coaching and competition programmes for 377 of Tayside’s top young athletes in eight sports (athletics, badminton, basketball, cricket, hockey, rugby, swimming and tennis).

• The Talented Athlete Programme was set up by sportscotland to provide support for athletes performing at the top of their sport and those with the potential to succeed.  To date over £8m has been awarded under the programme, helping athletes with sports related costs such as travel and coaching, and in some cases providing a subsistence allowance to allow athletes to take time off work.
• A list of this month’s Talented Athlete Programme awards is below.

TALENTED ATHLETE PROGRAMME

November 2000

54 awards totalling £304,066

Athletics

28 awards totalling £211,112

Boxing

1 award totalling £2,000

Cricket                        

3 awards totalling £5,130

Dance & Movement               

2 awards totalling £4,000

Ice Skating                  

1 award totalling £4,975

Karate

1 award totalling £3,000

Orienteering                   

8 awards totalling £23,171

Rowing                         

4 awards totalling £33,370

Trampolining

1 award totalling £3,000              

Weightlifting                  

5 awards totalling £14,308