Athletes hamstrung by poor sport facilities

EXCLUSIVE - New Zealand sports bosses are set to admit athletes here are being hampered in their efforts to become world-class performers by a lack of appropriate training facilities.

That's one of the key findings of Sport and Recreation New Zealand's review of high performance sport, due out on Tuesday. The findings will drive a development blueprint that could see a significant overhaul of New Zealand's tired and, in some cases, hopeless sporting facilities.

The findings follow New Zealand's disappointing performance at this year's Melbourne Commonwealth Games and the radical redevelopment of dilapidated Eden Park in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. There are also recently-announced plans for a $150 million-$180m replacement of Carisbrook in Dunedin.

Giving elite athletes access to world-class facilities is seen as a priority and Sparc is set to announce on Tuesday its high performance sports strategy that will drive investment and services in top level sport.

A source outside Sparc told the Herald on Sunday that New Zealand's inadequate sports facilities and infrastructure would be shown in a harsh light. The review has concluded that for New Zealand to keep pace with other countries in the sports "that matter most to New Zealanders", the facilities available to athletes need a significant upgrade.

Sparc chief executive Nick Hill said he would address questions regarding the high performance review when it was announced on Tuesday but others spoken to from outside the government funding agency have suggested that sport has reached make-or-break time in terms of facilities.

It is understood Sparc will work with selected sports to negotiate priority access to existing facilities or assist in developing world-class facilities.

Sparc doesn't have the ability to fund bricks and mortar but would develop a blueprint, probably by the end of 2007, for national facility development, working with the owners and developers of sporting facilities to ensure high performance requirements are a priority.

The concession that New Zealand is seriously lagging behind many sporting rivals for training centres was one of the motivations for the creation of the Auckland Regional Physical Activity and Sports Strategy (Arpass). Arpass strategy director Kelvyn Eglinton says the project's goal is to create pathways for sport in the region.

"Part of that is a facilities plan and Arpass has just been given the mandate to start a facilities plan for the next 20 years," Eglinton said.

"That's where the high performance component needs to be part of that discussion.

"We were aware this strategy was coming out ... we needed to have a regional view of facility development into the future," he said.

Part of Eglinton's job will be to formalise a hierarchy of facilities needed across the region. For example, table tennis might be in desperate need of a new hall but that might be a long way down the list of priorities for Sparc, which might see sports like swimming and sailing that mean more to New Zealanders have their facility shortcomings addressed more quickly.

Yachting New Zealand chief executive Des Brennan said his organisation wanted to see a better facility for high performance training set up in Auckland to be competitive at Olympic and world championship level.

"We need to consider these things if we want to continue at a world-class level in sports where we have a credible history," Brennan said.

In some cases, sports would benefit from the establishment of facilities in Europe, or access to existing facilities in reciprocal arrangements.

In February, the Herald on Sunday revealed that Sparc was reconsidering the way it delivered high performance, with at least one of the three regional academies (North, Central and South) to be discontinued. It seems certain there will be North and South Island academies only.