Juniors get activated for sport
Tuesday 2 October 2001
Young talented athletes all over Scotland are celebrating today the announcement of more financial support from the sportscotland Lottery Fund to help create sporting successes of the future.
"Without financial assistance we would have to limit our involvement in competitions."
From athletics to tennis the awards totalling over £138,000 from the sportscotland Junior Groups Programme, aims to help young people to progress to senior, national and ultimately, international level, through participation in comprehensive training and competition programmes.
Activ-8-Grampian has received nearly £75,000 and will use the award to increase the number of competition and training opportunities available to talented youngsters across eight sports including: athletics, badminton, cricket, gymnastics, hockey, netball, swimming and tennis and aims to have a significant impact on raising standards.
Launched in 1992, Activ-8-Grampian is a partnership between Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and Moray Council. The initiative is managed by sports specific planning groups and supported by the Activ-8 Sports Development Team.
281 athletes will be involved in the programme and are selected using performance standards or trials, from talented athletes competing at regional or district level. For most sports therefore, the regional squads are composed of young athletes aspiring entry into national junior squads, governing body talented athlete programmes and support by the Area Institutes of Sport.
The thrust of the Junior Groups Programme is on performance coaching, improved levels of competition and an introduction to the benefits of sports science support. Their aims include greater representation on national junior squads, selection to Scottish teams and significant improvements in personal and team performances.
The Scottish Badminton Union (SBU) and the Scottish Canoe Association also received awards. The (SBU) will use its award of £40,000 to help 60 talented athletes across three age groups: U14, U16 and U18. The programme will provide the players with enhanced weekly training sessions developing technical, tactical, performance and physical aspects of the game incorporating competitive opportunities. The U18 squad in particular will follow a focused training programme in preparation for the 2003 Junior European Championships in Denmark.
The SBU have run a successful programme and has produced five players who are now part of the Scottish Institute of Sport and 12 athletes who were selected as Area Institute athletes last year.
Anne Smillie, Chief Executive of SBU, said: “We are delighted with the financial support from the Lottery Sports Fund. The Junior Group aged 14 and above will provide us with the next two generations of successful Scottish Badminton players through an investment in their development over a 6 to 8 year period.”
The Scottish Canoe Association received nearly £28,000 for their Canoe Slalom Development Group. The money will be used to subsidise training camps and competitions both at home and abroad. UK competitions are held at Grandtully, Scotland, Bala and Llangollen in North Wales and Nottingham in England. International competitions arranged for 2002 are Lannion, France in Feb 2002 and provisionally Prague in the Czech Republic and Augsburg in Germany.
Scotland is currently making up 27% of the GB Junior Canoe Slalom Teams and in particular has 37% of athletes in the J16 team showing the depth of talent in Scotland capable of moving in to GB teams and hopefully WCPP level support.
John Brown, Junior National Coach, said: “sportscotland funding will enable us to maintain the quality and quantity of our training and competition programme. Over the last four years we become far more professional in our approach and this has been of tremendous benefit to everyone in the squad. Without the funding from Lottery this programme would have to be severely curtailed. It has also helped greatly to have the involvement of the new Scottish National Coach, Ewan Lowe, as well as input from the Area Institute of Sport.
“Competing at the highest level in sport is an expensive business and in our particular sport of canoe slalom, the travelling costs alone are horrendous. Without financial assistance we would have to limit our involvement in competitions. Lottery funding has helped greatly to ease the financial burden on the parents of our youngsters and enable them to participate fully in the sport.”
Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland, said: “Awards totalling over £2.5 million have been made through the Junior Groups Programme since its launch in 1997. It is vital to our development as a sporting nation to support talented young people from various sports in their efforts to develop to their maximum potential.
- To date, the sportscotland Lottery Fund has awarded £2,578,852 to Junior Groups programmes.
- Junior Groups Programme provides support to groups of talented young people participating in a co-ordinated programme of coaching and competitive events over a minimum period of six months.
- Those eligible to apply for support are governing bodies of sport through the National Programme and local authorities through the Regional Programme.
- Applications for the following costs are considered for funding: facility hire; coaching fees; accommodation; travel; equipment hire; administration or management costs and competition entry fees.