Sisters give surprise funding boost to rising Bay athletes

GENEROUS GESTURE: Rachael Shaw, left, and Mark Aspden with Hawke's Bay athlete Georgia Hulls. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Two promising Hawke' Bay athletes, sprinter Georgia Hulls and kayaker Elise Legarth, have had some surprising and much welcomed financial support from two sisters who have taken being sports fans to a new level.

Former equestrian Rachael Shaw of Napier was looking for a way of giving back to the community which was outside of the norm.

"I wanted to support an up-and-coming local sports star to enable them to be the best they can without worrying about how to get little bits of money together to compete. I just wanted to give some financial support, and the only criteria I had was to help an athlete in a sport I knew nothing about," she said.

Shaw approached Sport Hawke's Bay with her idea and asked for their assistance in identifying and selecting an athlete. Chief executive Mark Aspden helped put in place some structure around the criteria and developed a shortlist of athletes to meet with Shaw.

"I wasn't too keen to interview shortlisted candidates because I didn't want to disappoint anyone. However, Mark suggested that it would be a great learning experience for the candidates, as they would need to go out and get funding support at some stage.

"I ended up with two standouts in Georgia and Elise and it was going to be a tough decision. I spoke to my sister Angela about the difficult decision and instead of having to make a call, she liked what I was doing and decided to support Elise.

During the last year Shaw has followed Hulls' performances on the track as well as building a close relationship with the Hulls family. Last year she was on a cycle tour of Romania and in Europe on holiday at the same time Hulls and Legarth were competing in Europe.

"Georgia was competing in Poland, so I went and supported her and Elise was in Belarus, so I looked it up on the map and it wasn't too far from where I was, so I got on a plane and went and supported her too."

Shaw said the idea to financially support an athlete has been a huge success and she was keen to set up a trust with her sister, who lives in Australia, dedicated to supporting other young sportspeople. She also hoped other locals would consider financially backing athletes.

"It's been great fun supporting Georgia and Elise and I hope others consider it. There is very little, if any funding for developing athletes at this level so they need people to give them a hand."

Hulls is rapt with the support and said it went a long way to helping cover her training, equipment and travel costs, which last year amounted to $30,000.

"It's great having financial support, so I can get to events and lower my times, but it's also been so good having the emotional and mental support and having someone who has a genuine interest in what I am trying to achieve and how I'm going."

Hulls emails Shaw every fortnight with training and race updates as well as keeping in contact via regular text messages.

"We also get together for dinners and Rachael comes and supports me at meets like the Potts Classic," Hulls said.

Hulls is in her final year at Havelock North High School. She is targeting the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 IAAF World Junior Championships in Finland. At this stage she is hoping to race in the 200m but needs to beat the New Zealand qualifying time of 23.10s. Her best time is 23.80s.

Legarth is studying at Waikato University and is one of the newest members of New Zealand's high-performance canoe racing squad.

Aspden said the personal giving idea was a great way to support young sportspeople realise their dreams and he hoped there might be others in the community keen to support a young athlete.

"It's been an incredible journey for everyone involved. It takes away some of the financial pressure that's usually placed on mums and dads of sportspeople and it also provides an additional supporter and mentor to their support crew.

"We would love to see this develop further and we are here to assist," Aspden added.