The financial cost of sports injuries in Rotorua has more than doubled in five years to nearly $4 million annually.
Despite the rising cost of ACC claims, ACC says the figures reflect a change in the way the government department now records data.
In 2003/04, ACC paid out $1.7 million for 282 new and ongoing injury claims. In 2007/08, the corporation handled 495 claims - 355 of them new - paying out $3.9 million to cover medical expenses and surgery.
Figures obtained by The Daily Post follow revelations Accident Compensation faces a billion-dollar budget blowout.
Campaigns promoting regular exercise, like SPARC's Push Play 30-minutes a day message, have resulted in more people participating in sport and exercise in recent years but local experts say the ACC figures show not enough people are preparing their bodies for the physical demands of sport and recreation.
Rotorua rehabilitation specialist Susan Birch said she saw many people whose injuries could have been prevented.
"They don't seem to realise that before they start (exercising), they really need to prepare their bodies and work on their muscle balance and do that core functional training first."
Core muscle training reduced the risk of injury and boosted recovery in case of injury, she said. First-time joggers were typical of people who could quickly fall victim to shin splints, joint injuries and tendinitis.
Most sports and activities have recorded injury-claim increases, including cricket, golf, horse riding, netball, rugby, league and dancing.
Simon Gianotti, an ACC injury prevention manager, said it was unclear if the increases were linked to more people participating in sport. "While some sports like rugby, league and netball are great at recording participation numbers, it's hard to know whether more people are taking up other activities, like jogging."
Claim increases in Rotorua reflected a wider national trend which ACC put down to more accurate collection of information, he said. The rising popularity of mountainbiking in Rotorua was strongly reflected in the ACC figures.
Between July 2007 and June 2008, ACC approved 20 new mountainbiking claims in Rotorua, paying out $270,000 to injured riders, including payments for five ongoing claims. The figure was up nearly $100,000 on the previous year and did not include road cycling, which became a separate category in 2005.
One of Rotorua's most costly sports is waterskiiing.
In 2003/04, ACC paid out $124,000 for waterskiing injuries, more than doubling to $338,000 in 2007/08. Rugby-related accidents in Rotorua cost $349,000 five years ago.
That has more than doubled now to $713,000 a year while the cost of cricket injuries shot up by 550 per cent in Rotorua over five years, from $18,000 to $117,000.
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