Emerging young talent to be fostered

Sport Wanganui has launched a comprehensive talent development programme designed to assist emerging athletes, coaches and their specific sports in the region.

The Promising Athletes Programme (PAP) will focus on developing athletes, coaches and the corresponding sport using the best practice models for talent development.

Sport Wanganui sport development adviser Nicole Dryden said the seed funding for the project came from the closure of the New Zealand Academy of Sport Central and the programme was delivered by Sport Wanganui, including expertise from Sport New Zealand, High Performance New Zealand and Sport Ambassadors.

"The Promising Athletes Programme has been developed to support the development and overall wellbeing of young promising athletes who aspire to achieve sporting excellence," Dryden said.

"It will provide athletes and their coaches with the tools to excel in their chosen sport and to achieve balance between sport, education and personal life."

It is a progressive two-year programme and is aimed at 15- to 17-year-old athletes, but will also include their coach who will be aligned with the athlete development.

After analysing a number of applications, the Sport Wanganui Promising Athletes Programme panel chose 22 athletes from a variety of sporting codes to be involved in the programme.

Codes the athletes were chosen from include kayaking, mountain biking, rowing, netball, football, track and field, speed skating, basketball and rugby.

The programme was launched last week and will include a session every two to three weeks based on many components of high performance such as athlete/coach education, pre/post testing, sport conditioning, video analysis, lifestyle management, nutrition and sport psychology.

"Our aim is to provide a comprehensive talent development programme that will assist emerging athletes, their coaches and their specific sport in the Wanganui region and help give them a better pathway to success," Dryden said.