Sports funding: Snow sports winners in grants announcement

Snow sports have been given a big boost in the latest round of Skeggs Foundation grants announced yesterday.

The Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver early next year and the Skeggs grants are helping Otago aspirants get the competition they need as they seek to qualify for the Olympics.

Of the seven recipients who have been lifted to the category one elite status, four come from snow sports.

They are Wanaka-based snowboarders Mitchell (21) and Kendall Brown (19) and skiers Tim Cafe and Janina Kuzma.

They join eight existing category one recipients who are involved with snow sports.

Wanaka snowboarder Juliane Bray, who competed in both the half-pipe and boarder-cross events at the Turin Winter Olympics in Italy in 2006 retains her spot as one of the 27 Otago competitors to receive a category one grant.

Siblings Kendall and Mitchell Brown also competed at the Turin Olympics.

The other snow sports competitors in the elite group are skiers Michelle Greig, Adam Hall (adaptive skiing), snowboarders James Hamilton and Paula Mitchell, skeleton racer Tionette Stoddard and free skiers Byron and Jossi Wells.

Also returning to category one status are netballer Jodi Brown and World Cup marathon representative Shireen Crumpton.

Golfer Duncan Croudis is the only new member of the category one group, with the other six to be promoted having been there previously.

World champions in the elite group are rower Hamish Bond and cyclist Alison Shanks.

Sport Otago operations manager Duane Donovan said the Skeggs Foundation judges grant recipients on results.

"The better they go the more funding they can get," he said.

"A world champion will get the most support and if anyone returned from the Winter Olympics with a medal their support would reach a higher level."

The Skeggs Foundation started in 1993 and has distributed $2.5 million to promising athletes.

It gives grants of $100,000 each six months and 138 sports people from 33 sports received grants this month.

This includes 27 new recipients.

The Skeggs Foundation has done much to boost Otago sport with its monetary contributions.

It has also boosted the confidence of Otago competitors to know they have the local business community backing their efforts.

Skeggs grants are only given to people who represent Otago, or Otago clubs, in national events.

But they can live outside the province if this is a requirement of their sport.

Double world champion Hamish Bond is based at Cambridge because elite rowers are required to train with the New Zealand squad at Lake Karapiro.

But he retains his membership of the North End club in Dunedin and competes for it at national championships.

Past recipients of Skeggs grants include three All Black captains - Anton Oliver, Taine Randell and Tom Willis - and three Silver Ferns captains - Belinda Colling, Lesley Nicol and Anna Rowberry.

Other former recipients are double Olympic Games gold medallist Danyon Loader and Commonwealth Games cycling champions Glen Thomson and Greg Henderson.

Henderson, who now competes professionally in Europe, and Scarlett Hagen (mountain biking) are former world champions.