Grant boost for Beijing hopefuls

THE tremor that rocked Irish sport last year when leading sportsmen and women were dropped from the grants scheme or had their funding cut has eased and only minor after-shocks are likely to be experienced when the details of the Carding Scheme and the Performance Plan are revealed early in the New Year.

Since last year’s furore, there has been a review of the Carding Scheme and, contrary to rumours it was about to be dropped, it is to remain, with the promise of massive funding for elite athletes, those below that level and more emphasis and youth and development athletes.

Many athletes with their sights on Beijing 2008 and the major championships before that should be filling in applications for their federations who, in turn, will take their respective cases to the Irish Sports Council.

Last year many sports people had their grants cut and some long serving athletes like Mark Carroll, Peter Coghlan and Sonia O’Sullivan were dropped from the scheme although Sonia was reinstated on appeal.

According to an Irish Sports Council source the cuts won’t be as harsh when the package is presented in late January or early February, although there may be a significant shift in terms of contracted athletes.

“It is not going to affect the big numbers like last year, the ISC’s Communications Manager, Paul McDermott, predicted. “What will happen will be consistent with the Athens Review and I don’t anticipate the type of shock experienced last year. We are trying to focus on the best athletes and getting them into a system where they are very well looked after thereby ensuring that they have a sense of comfort around their support levels.

“In terms of the mature athletes, they will be focusing on the very best but, in keeping with the Athens Review, they’ll also be focusing on junior and developmental athletes.

“They expect men and women in all sports who are at the peak of their careers to be competitive at the very top level and they will be rewarded for that.

“That would have been the direction chosen last year,” McDermott pointed out. “Some of the decisions might have come across as harsh but generally speaking we were looking at supporting people who were very competitive at world level.”

“The ISC don’t want to create a situation where people will feel insecure about their funding arrangements and they will be stressing that performances will bring about certainty.

“Take the boxers who went to the world championships in China, for example, the likes of Roy Sheahan and Kenneth Egan were unlucky and were very close to making a breakthrough to quarter finals and maybe go beyond,” he said.

“They understand that these were the performances at world level that will produce corresponding support levels.

“Rather than them having to come in and make a case and saying ‘I was nearly this or I was nearly that’, they actually produced at the top level and there is complete certainty around it.

“The rowers who did so well this year are others who won’t have difficulty filling in their forms and getting the recognition they deserve. It happened to the likes of Gillian O’Sullivan and Andy Lee in the past. They went out and won medals at the highest levels.

“We are looking long term and the Carding Scheme has got to adjust,” McDermott insisted.

“We are not just looking at 2008, we are looking at London 2012 as well and sport performance directors also have to look long term.”