Fourth year of funding for Junior Groups
Monday 21st January 2002
Table Tennis, Gymnastics and Basketball are celebrating their fourth consecutive year of funding from the sportscotland Lottery Fund's Junior Groups Programme, which provides talented young athletes with a comprehensive training and competition programme.
Table Tennis Scotland (TTS) have made progress in competitive events and rankings since their first year of funding. The programme this year, which received a boost of £40,000 from the sportscotland Lottery Fund, will include domestic training camps, overseas training camps for some of the top players, European events for some players and national events. Twenty-four athletes will be involved in the programme covering four age groups: U12, U14, U17 and U21, with dedicated monthly sessions for U12's and monthly weekends for small groups to be implemented this year.
Kathy Knowles, Performance Director for TTS, said: "We are delighted that we have been awarded a lottery grant for the fourth year running for our Junior Performance Programme. Over the past three years this award has enabled TTS to send players regularly to high profile tournaments in England and provide extra training opportunities both in Scotland and abroad. As a result several players are now ranked in the top 10 juniors in England, with one player now ranked number 1 in the UK U17 division."
The Scottish Gymnastics Association received £40,000 from the sportscotland Lottery Fund for their Junior Groups Programme. This will give young gymnasts quality training and coaching opportunities, enabling them to compete nationally and internationally. Men's artisitic, women's artistic, rhythmic, sports acrobatics and trampolining all benefit from the money provided through this programme.
Scottish gymnastics has had promising results with one gymnast selected for GB Junior European Squad, one gymnast selected for the GB women's artistic squad, two gymnasts selected to represent GB at the Junior World Age Group Championships, two gymnasts selected for the British Youth squad (trampolining) and one gymnast selected for the GB junior squad (rhythmic).
Lorna MacLeod, National Development Officer for the Scottish Gymnastics Association, said: "Without this money many of the young gymnasts with talent would not experience this intense training with other gymnasts of similar ability nor would they experience international competition. Scottish Gymnastics would like to thank sportscotland Lottery Fund for making this training possible and raising the standard of gymnastics in Scotland."
basketballscotland received £23,333 which will be used to support four squads: Cadet men and Women (U18) and Junior Men and Women (U16). Collectively this will include 64 players and all will be of either junior national or junior international standard. The programme includes a series of coaching and friendly matches in the run up to International Competitions.
Since the introduction of the Lottery Sports Fund in 1997, basketball's junior national teams have been able to apply for grants to enable them to train together more frequently and gain valuable experience by participating in numerous international games.
James Steel, Technical Director for basketballscotland said: "The Junior Groups Award allows basketballscotland to provide our youth squads with more training opportunities in better quality facilities. This enables our youth squads to be better prepared for the tough home internationals and European Promotion Cup tournaments that they face in 2002. Last year the Junior Groups Award helped produce excellent results from all our youth teams and the support from sportscotland is essential for us to continue to improve our performances internationally."
Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland, said: "Young children and young people should be encouraged to participate in sport and recreational activities to promote social interaction and well-being.
"The Junior Group Programme aims to encourage a healthy lifestyle and a life long attitude to participation by providing necessary funding to ensure that young people in Scotland are given every sporting opportunity."
- 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 re governing bodies of sports 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 and competition entry fees.