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Athletics granted cash bonus by the ASC
Australian athletics is set to receive a boost
in the form of an additional $1.5million of high performance
funding following the announcement of funding allocations by the
Australian Sports Commission Board late last Friday.
In receiving the additional funding, which is granted in addition
to the current baseline high performance funding the sport will
continue to receive, athletics has been recognised as a sport with
the ability to deliver successful outcomes in line with the
Government’s new direction for sport.
Athletics Australia High Performance Manager Eric
Hollingsworth said the additional funding would be
channelled into three main areas; medical, coaching and athlete
contracts.
“We’re quite happy with the result, it’s about right for where we
sit in relation to swimming and cycling and it’s a huge increase in
previous funding,” Hollingsworth said.
“The new high performance funding will allow for the extension of
previous high performance outlooks to implement big-ticket
improvements that are crucial to our sport and the forward movement
of high performance.
“Obviously our high performance strategic plan has been looked on
favourably by the Australian Sports Commission and ranks us up with
the other powerhouse sports of Australia in swimming, cycling and
rowing.”
The allocation of additional funding for athletics comes amid a
purple patch for the sport that has given rise to a new generation
of track and field stars. The efforts of senior medal-winning
athletes at the Berlin world championships in 2009 - Steve
Hooker (gold, pole vault), Dani Samuels
(gold, discus throw), Mitchell Watt (bronze, long
jump) and Australia’s men’s 4x400m relay team (bronze) – and the
world indoor championships in Doha in March, 2010 – Steve Hooker
(gold, pole vault), Fabrice Lapierre (gold, long
jump) and Mitchell Watt (bronze, long jump) – have boosted the
profile of athletics in Australia and on the world stage.
With the Australian Flame ranked 10th on the medal table of the 202
IAAF member federations at the senior world titles and fifth on the
medal table of the 149 participating nations at the 2010 world
indoor titles, Australia will enter next month’s Commonwealth Games
with up to 20 athletes ranked inside the top 20 for their event in
the world.
Athletics Australia Chief Executive Officer Dallas
O’Brien said continued financial support from the ASC was
key to the continued development of athletics in Australia.
“We greatly appreciate the support of the Australian Sports
Commission. The extra funding will enable us to implement a number
of new initiatives within our high performance program and we look
forward to seeing the results of these initiatives for years to
come,” O’Brien said.
In further good news for athletics, further funding may be
allocated to the sport by the Australian Paralympic Committee,
which was awarded an extra $3million of funding by the ASC, for its
elite athletes with a disability.
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