Wellington City Council Talent Development Programme

Wellington City Council has allocated funding for a talent development programme for promising young sportspeople in Wellington City through to 2010. The programme will support projects aligned to National Sports Organisation (NSO) and/or Regional Sports Organisation (RSO) athlete development pathways.

The programme is aligned with SPARC’s national approach to talent development and is managed in partnership with the New Zealand Academy of Sport North Island.

The initiative aims to increase the number of athletes from Wellington City achieving international sporting success.

Development Projects
The programme funds talent development projects aligned to national or regional sports organisation development pathways. It supports Sport and Recreation New Zealand’s approach to national talent development. Funding of up to $15,000 annually per applicant will be managed by the New Zealand Academy of Sport. It will be used for athlete and coach development in areas including strength and conditioning, mental skills, coaching workshops, personal development, and injury prevention and rehabilitation.

Criteria for Applicants:
Applications were open to local sporting organisations interested in receiving a share of the funding. The recipient sportspeople must live in Wellington, and had to be 16-18 years old. Coaches must be able to offer the required development.

Successful Recipients

Following the first round of applications late in 2007, 6 organisations were successful in receiving support through the Talent development Programme.  In 2009, this was increased to 8:

1.  Netball Wellington Region
2.  Swimming NZ
3.  Triathlon NZ
4.  Wellington High Performance Aquatics
5.  Wellington Hockey Association
6.  Yachting New Zealand
7.  Basketball
8.  Golf

For further information, contact desleaw@nzasni.org.nz