Athletes run away with lottery funding

Monday 23 June 2003

With the athletics season underway, Scottish Athletics Ltd have welcomed their fourth year of funding from the sportscotland Lottery Fund’s Junior Groups Programme, which provides talented young athletes with a comprehensive training and competition programme.

The award of £50,000 from sportscotland will support intense training and competitive opportunities for 121 talented athletes at U17, U20 and U23 athletes. The programme will focus heavily on competition and athletes with international potential will be able to take advantage of participating in high-level events, which they would not otherwise have, access to.

Many of the athletes who have been supported by the programme have represented Scotland in international and national competition and are close to achieving top five ranking in Scotland for their respective age groups. The U20/U23 age categories will benefit from competing in July’s European U23 Championships in Poland and the European U20 Championships in Finland in order to maintain their development and move onto the next level. The programme also includes hill running and cross country with the SPAR European Cross Country Championships being held in Edinburgh in December.

David Joy, Chief Executive for Scottish Athletics Ltd, said: “There has been a significant growth in the number of Scottish athletes gaining selection for Great Britain teams at junior level in recent years. The Junior Groups Programme has been a very important part of that on-going progress.

“We are pleased that the programme continues to flourish and we are very hopeful that athletes within the programme will graduate into top class senior athletes in future years.”

Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland, said: “We are delighted to continue supporting Scottish Athletics Ltd and pleased that the programme is going from strength to strength.

“We believe it is important to support athletes in the early stages of their training, through a structured programme, in order to develop young talent to reach their full potential. Our aim is to create not only men and women capable of achieving at the highest level, but also role models who will encourage all young people to take part in and achieve in sport.”

• The Junior Groups Programme provides support to groups of talented young people participating in a co-ordinated programme of coaching and competition events over a minimum period of six months.
• Those eligible to apply for support are governing bodies of sports through the National Programme and local authorities through the Regional Programme.
• Applications for the following for the following costs are considered for funding: facility hire, coaching fees, accommodation, travel, equipment and competition entry fees.