North sports chiefs hail Olympic cash

Dec 5 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

NORTH East basketball chiefs last night welcomed a decision to plough more than £8m into the sport to clinch success at London 2012.

UK Sport has allocated cash to the 26 Olympic disciplines for the coming four years.

Despite being hit with a £50m shortfall in expected private investment for the Games, a total of £229m was handed to Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls.

And basketball, which is hugely successful and popular across the North East, was one of the country’s big winners as the sport received a funding increase of more than 136% to £8.75m.

The decision to invest the funds comes off the back of international success in the last three years for Team GB.

And last night Paul Blake, Newcastle Eagles owner and chairman of the British Basketball League, urged further investment to develop grass-root basketball stars.

He said: “In the last three years we have achieved more than we have in the last 30 years. This is not Commonwealth sport, it is a true world sport, and it should receive the significant investment it deserves.

“You only have to go 22 miles across a stretch of water to Europe and you can see that it’s completely different.

“Hopefully this will bring success, and I know that we need to keep together the current team that did so well in the European Championships and maybe bring in a few younger ones.

“It’s not just about 2012, it goes as far as 2016, 2020 and all the World and European competitions in between.

“We all need to get funding for grass-root basketball which, in many ways, has been under-funded for many years.”

The investments aim to build on the £265m invested prior to the Beijing games, in an effort to land “top four” finish in London and make it the most successful Olympic performance by a British team in 100 years. However, while basketball prospers, other sports have been handed limited funding.

Eight disciplines will have to share a pot of just £12.5m, including fencing, table tennis, handball, volleyball and water polo.

Last night North East regional fencing development officer Beth Davidson said fencers in the North East were prepared to weather the storm.

She added: “For me personally it’s frustrating because we are in limbo.

“In the past we’ve had very little funding and generally that’s disappointing because we do have aspirations to achieve.

“However, the North East is in a very advantageous position because we are starting to get systems in place and we need to maximise what we already have in the North East.”

All funding decisions are made on a strategy which channels resources primarily to those sports and athletes most likely to win medals.

Sue Campbell, chair of UK Sport, said: “The additional funding is very welcome, given current economic conditions, and brings a high degree of certainty in an otherwise uncertain world.

“With a shortfall in the overall funding available, we had to make some tough calls, but we did so in the knowledge that our ‘no compromise’ strategy is not only known and understood by sport but was also the basis of our success in Beijing.”