Top manager to share insight

The manager of some of New Zealand's top athletes will be in Wanganui on Monday to speak with local sporting prospects about building their careers.

Sport Whanganui has invited Kelly Evans, managing director of the Athlete Project Agency, to present at a series of workshops speaking to young local athletes, their families and coaches.

Evans will cover career advice and planning, media and public relations, self marketing and securing sponsorship.

Her agency represents London Olympics bronze medal cyclist Simon van Velthooven, world champion cyclist Aaron Gate, Olympic heptathlete Sarah Cowley, Black Ferns sevens captain Sarah Goss, and others.

Sport Performance Whanganui co-ordinator Nicole Dryden says the relevance of these careers - Evans' areas of expertise - are crucial for young aspiring athletes to understand.

"Travelling and progressing in your chosen sport often requires a huge fundraising effort and, if we are honest, we could learn a thing or two about how to do this better so that kids are not prevented from travelling to represent their sport, school and country due to limited funding."

Sport Performance Whanganui is the performance and talent development arm of Sport Whanganui, running the Promising Athletes Programme (PAP), Pathway to Podium (P2P), and others.

P2P is the national talent development programme created by High Performance Sport NZ, of which Sport Whanganui provides a regional hub.

The current local athletes and their coaches within P2P have been selected nationally for canoe racing and triathlon.

PAP was introduced in 2013 and focuses on athletes aged 15-18 years, and their coaches, who have been nominated by their sporting bodies for this development programme. It currently covers locals in athletics, golf, kayaking and triathlon.

Those in P2P and PAP have been invited to Monday's workshops.

Dryden said she is delighted to have Evans involved in the project, and plans to bring in speakers of the same calibre in the future.

"Our young talent needs to access the best expertise we can find to help them continue on the talent development, high performance pathway."