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Canoe club makes rapid progress with new facility

Monday 26 September 2005

sportscotland is pleased to announce that CR CATS, a canoeing club in Central Scotland, has been awarded £6,700 from sportscotland’s Lottery funded Building for Sport Programme.

The CR CATS Club is very excited to be receiving this award and has ambitious plans for the future of canoeing at the site. The award will enable them to purchase the land adjacent the river course and allow the club to make the facility more accessible to canoeists and upgrade the existing gate system. The club already boasts the only floodlit canoe slalom course in Scotland.

For the past 10 years, CR CATS has played an active part in the canoe and canoe slalom sports world. The club has been associated with a number of outstanding athletes during this time at junior and senior levels both male and female. The most successful of these is Campbell Walsh, 2004 Olympic Silver medallist and 2004 World Cup Champion.

Receiving news of the award, John Brown, Chief Coach and CR CATS Secretary, said: “For some time there has been real concern about the possibility of losing the site at Alva. The sportscotland Lottery Award, along with our own funds, should enable us to acquire the land and thus retain access, as well as making improvements to the training gates mechanism at the site. Over the years the Alva site has helped Scotland to produce some world-class Canoe Slalom paddlers. Hopefully this will now continue on in the future.”

Julia Bracewell OBE, Chair, sportscotland said: “We are delighted to be supporting CR Cats Canoe Club with a sportscotland Lottery award to assist them in developing their facilities. The purchase of additional land will guarantee access to Scotland’s only floodlit canoe slalom facility and ensure the club’s proven links with national and world success.

“This award is another example of sportscotland’s commitment to providing communities across Scotland with quality, accessible facilities, to ensure that more people have the opportunity to be more active, more often.”

  • Launched in March 2004, the Building for Sport Programme is divided into two strands Community Facilities and Training & Competition Facilities
  • Applications for the Community Facilities Programme will mainly be led by local authorities, clubs and trusts and covers the provision or upgrading of facilities for the local community
  • The Training and Competition Facilities Programme will concentrate on the provision or upgrading of centres designated as a national or regional facility by the relevant governing body for sport
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