Trust vows to help city athletes excel

Photo/File

A helping hand to Wanganui's up-and-coming athletes has been promised after the launch of the new Future Champions Trust at the Cooks Gardens Lounge yesterday.

After the initial fundraising dinner, organised by the trust's chairwoman Philippa Baker-Hogan during the Aon Billy Webb Challenge in December last year, Wanganui business people and other local identities were invited to the launch.

"Wanganui has always punched above its weight in terms of producing international sports people but international achievement comes with financial pressure," Sport Wanganui says in a media statement.

"The trust recognises that, with the recent centralisation of national sports academies away from the provinces, the costs for Wanganui's gifted young sports people are challenging."

To apply to the trust an applicant must meet certain criteria.

"They should typically reside in or play their chosen sport in the Wanganui district for at least six months of the year, and will generally be aged between 13-24 years.

"Applications will only be accepted from individual athletes [not from a whole team], but the athlete may have been chosen for an international team, eg NZ Junior Sevens team, NZ Junior Men's Rowing Eight.

Baker-Hogan said she was excited vision of the trust being realised.

"I have always wanted to give back to the city that supported me in the prime of my sporting career and this trust is a mechanism to do that.

"Wanganui keeps producing wonderful talent but the challenges and expense for our kids to perform, from provincial New Zealand, are significant," Baker-Hogan said.

"We all win when they do well but we need to give them a hand up to do that."

Yesterday's launch preceded tonight's 2013 Ray White Wanganui Sports Awards at Wanganui Racecourse. Sports personality Phil Gifford served as the MC, as he will this evening.

Trust ambassador is Rebecca Scown, Wanganui's double world champion and Olympic bronze medallist rower, who was recently named in the top 10 female rowers in the world.

She said: "I'm really happy to be an ambassador for the trust, which I can see is a great initiative to help talented Wanganui athletes bridge that difficult gap to an international sporting career."

The other trustees come with a range of business and sporting credentials Ron Cheatley, Danny Jonas, Stuart Kelly, Hamish McKay, Richard Millward and Alaina Teki-Clark.

Jonas, chief executive of Sport Wanganui, said the trust would be complementary to his organisation's Promising Athletes Programme.

The two-year programme is aimed at 15-17 year olds, providing them and their coaches with the tools to excel.

Speed skater Jessica van Bentum is currently part of that programme and yesterday spoke of her experiences as a current young high performance athlete, along with kayaker Max Brown.

Business can sign up to the trust as gold, silver or bronze supporters, or they can just make a donation.

Information is available at www.futurechampionstrust.org or email enquiries@futurechampionstrust.org.