$700,000 to help athletes prepare

Press, 9 November 1983, Page 72

$700,000 to help athletes prepare

PA Auckland The Sports Foundation will spend up to $700,000 to help selected athletes prepare for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles next year. Mr Keith Hancox, the foundation’s executive director, said in Auckland yesterday that most help would go to athletes with the potential of reaching finals.

The foundation will meet on November 18 and 19 to consider grants to individual sports: “We may cover half, possibly a third, of the games teams,” said Mr Hancox.

He said he hoped the grants would be announced before Christmas or early next year: “It’s no use granting money after the Olympic team has been announced,” he said. “The grants are to prepare the athletes, not to send, them to the games.”

Mr Hancox said that the main beneficiaries could be rowing ($llO,OOO to $120,000), canoeing ($90,000), yachting ($30,000 to $40,000), track and field ($30,000), hockey ($30,000 to $35,000) and swimming ($20,000 to $25,000 for two or three people). Mr Hancox said rowing was high on the list because of equipment costs and the number of athletes accruing training expenses and lost wages. “Canoeing is a small sport in this country,” he said, “but these fellows did remarkably well at their world championships. We have to see they get overseas to compete against the best.”

Sir Ronald Scott, chairman of the foundation’s grants committee, said boxing, after the successful team effort at the recent world championships, might also feature prominently in the grants.