Swimming, rugby league and badminton benefit from Sport England's latest set of investments
Thursday 23 March 2017 11:19, UK
Seven sports, including swimming and rugby league, will benefit from more than £27m of additional grassroots funding.
Sport England announced its latest major portfolio of investments on Thursday morning, all of them designed to get people playing sport regularly.
The £27.164m investment, which includes specific National Lottery and Government funding for seven governing bodies, will mainly be targeted at people who have a strong affinity with sport, including talented athletes trying to reach the top.
Sport England's director of sport Phil Smith said: "The investments we've announced today are the latest in a series of National Lottery funding commitments we are making to help sport's regular participants.
"They are the people who play sport and get active week in, week out, and we want to make sure their experience is so good that they continue to stick with that healthy habit.
"National governing bodies of sport know these people well and are in a good position to deliver the quality experience they are looking for. I've been really impressed by the way they've responded to our new strategy and put customers at the heart of their plans."
Swimming (£7.46m) and rugby league (£7m) receive the biggest boost in finances for participation, with baseball and softball receiving £1.098m and taekwondo £999,704.
Rugby Football League (RFL) chief executive Nigel Wood said: "The Rugby Football League appreciates all of the public funding that has come into the sport.
"The National Lottery investment from Sport England will assist us in supporting and growing areas that have a strong rugby league player base and will enable the Rugby Football League to focus on enabling more people to keep playing the sport they love.
"We are in a good position to continue to move the sport forward, particularly having also secured significant external investment through our Sky Try campaign, which has committed £2 million per year until 2021 and which will enable more than 100,000 children to play the sport in the first 18 months of the programme."
The remaining funding goes to talent, with rugby league the biggest beneficiary having been handed a further £3.75m.
Swimming receives £3.1m in talent funding, a further £2.8m goes to badminton, £410,000 to basketball, £373,800 to weightlifting and £175,000 to baseball and softball.
Jane Nickerson, interim chief executive of the Amateur Swimming Association, said: "We are very pleased that Sport England has once again shown their confidence in us to lead and develop our sport.
"Our vision is of a nation swimming and we are committed to doing all we can to encourage people to take part and enjoy all our aquatic sports.
"This investment from Sport England and the National Lottery will help us to continue to support our clubs, athletes and volunteers, as well as deliver new programmes to help people stay healthy and active through swimming."
