Equestrian sport in Britain and New Zealand has received a boost in funding thanks to the success of their equestrian teams at London 2012
In Britain Sport England announced on 17th December a £493 million four-year investment to deliver grassroots sporting opportunities and a lasting Olympic and Paralympic legacy. Of 46 sports receiving investment equestrianism secured an award of £6 million for the four year cycle 2013-2017; an increase of 46% from the previous Olympiad.
In addition UK Sport funding figures for the Rio Olympiad were announced on 18th December, totalling an investment of £347 million into elite sport over the next four years. Of 42 sports receiving investment equestrianism secured an award of £17,929,600 for Olympic Equestrian Sport and £3,782,800 for Paralympic Equestrian sport for the four year cycle 2013-2017, a total of £21,712,400.
The award places equestrian as a priority one funded sport alongside the likes of cycling, rowing, sailing, gymnastics and athletics. This allocation of Lottery and Exchequer money, via UK Sport, enables the sport to continue to maximise its successes on the World, Olympic and Paralympic stages as well as helping to develop elite riders for future success in the four Olympic and Paralympic disciplines of showjumping, dressage, para-equestrian dressage and eventing.
For further details visit the British Eventing website
Meanwhile in New Zealand, High Performance Sport New Zealand announced an increase of $4 million funding for eventing (as opposed to equestrian in general), which is considered to be ‘an Olympic individual sport with a high probability of single podium success’. This takes the funding from $3.2m for the period 2009-2012 to $7.2m for the period 2013-2016 as a Tier 2 Targeted Sport
In an interview with stuff.co.nz ESNZ Chief Executive Jim Ellis explains how they will use the money.
“Rather than just competing as a team at the Aachen festival, we will compete five times and in order to do that we have to get the entire support team together each time, so that is a significant increase in costs” says Ellis, referring to the five FEI Nations Cup Eventing competitions in 2013
Coach Eric Duvander and ESNZ High Performance director Sarah Harris have both been re-signed through to 2016 while a part-time England based administrator will also be employed (Harris is based in NZ while most of the riders and Erik Duvander are UK based)
There is also $275,000 to be allocated to Performance Enhancement Grants for the top riders in 2013 which Duvander and Harris will be targeting depending on individual needs.
“What that means for a Clarke (Johnstone) or Jock (Paget) or Jonelle (Richards) will be different to what it means for Andrew (Nicholson) and slightly different again for Mark (Todd)” points out Ellis
To read the full interview with Jim Ellis, visit stuff.co.nz
This is obviously all good news for equestrian sport in these countries but maybe not such good news for Australian eventers having to compete against not only great talent but also lots more funding.
On another note we were interested to see however, in the notes accompanying the New Zealand report, that croquet did not receive any funding which seems a shame - imagine if they played croquet the way Toddy and Nicholson ride a horse? No doubt UK Sport would have allocated money to croquet in Britain; after all, where would they be without the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (also known as Wimbledon?)
For further details visit the Equestrian Sports NZ website
The Kiwi team - lots of good reasons to smile ............... Photo: EventingNZ
