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Swimming got that sinking feeling yesterday, when Sparc applied dollar signs to its high performance investment programme toward the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Of the six targeted sports, swimming was the only one to take a high performance funding cut under a strategy aimed at winning 10 medals
in London.
An investment of $1.4 million in 2008 was cut to $1.35 million per year for the next four years, while athletics, rowing, cycling, yachting and triathlon all got increases.
Cycling and rowing both got an $800,000 per year boost, to $3m.
Athletics, rowing, cycling, triathlon and yachting all won Olympic medals in Beijing, with cycling notching seven top 10s, and rowing eight.
Sparc has made it clear it is aiming funding at the elite, so with swimming getting only two top 10 placings in Beijing last year, it suffered against other targeted sports.
"Priority has been given to sports with the greatest chance of success," Sparc high performance manager Martin Toomey said.
"We have had to be uncompromising in applying criteria based on past performance and the likelihood of future success."
While Swimming NZ proclaimed itself satisfied with its allocation, Triathlon NZ was disappointed to get "considerably" less than it applied for.
"We will work through the implications of the funding round with our stakeholders and high performance team and cut our cloth accordingly," Triathlon NZ chief executive Dave Beeche said.
"Longer term planning and investment will clearly be reconsidered; we can't spend money we don't have."
The funding levels are locked in for two years, after which a mid-term review against the various high performance plans will be conducted.
Funding levels will be maintained for the following two years though to 2012 if targets were being met, Toomey said.
While investment levels were higher than in the last Olympic cycle, that was being offset by falling exchange rates and increasing costs of competing overseas.
The targeted investment is part of an overall high performance investment programme of approximately $35 million per annum.
Other components of the investment programme included:
* High performance funding to other national sports organisation under the contestable investment process ($4.8m);
* Performance enhancement grants direct to athletes and coaches ($5.5m);
* Prime Minister's sports scholarship programme ($4.25m);
* High performance support: technology, research, innovation, talent transfer ($2m);
* New Zealand Academy of Sport athlete and coach support programme ($5.7m).
Beeche said triathlon could now work through a process to finalise plans for the next few years, and was grateful for the continued investment from Sparc.
Longer term planning would suffer, he said.
"It is our firm belief that no sport can operate a high performance programme with a four-year cycle only.
"We made that clear and hoped to identify and develop our athletes with 2016 in mind as well as London."
Five New Zealand triathletes are inside the world top 10 , while the sport has won three medals at the past two Olympic Games.
Swimming NZ chief executive Mike Byrne said it was disappointing to be the only sport not to receive an increase in funding.
The challenge now was to invest it in the best ways possible, he said.
"We are very happy to have this support from Sparc. Obviously though, it would have been preferable to gain an increase to help us be more competitive on the world stage," he said.
"Swimming is one of the most international of all sports at the Olympics and plainly we are not going to be able to match the funding levels of the likes of USA, Australia, Japan and many European nations."
BikeNZ was delighted with the support from Sparc, saying it would allow it to establish a platform to target the London Olympics.
It would allow core programmes to be set up and the securing of key people and resources, BikeNZ chief executive Kieran Turner said of the investment.
The organisation had targeted track cycling and BMX for the bulk of its support.
In Beijing cyclists won medals in the men's individual and team's pursuit, along with fourths in the women's pursuit and women's BMX.
- NZPA
