Eight Sports Selected in 2017 Wellington City Council Sports Talent Development Programme

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Sport Wellington is excited to announce the following eight sports that have been accepted as part of the 2017 Wellington City Council funded Sports Talent Development Programme. The successful sports for 2017 are: athletics, fencing, golf, hockey, kayaking, netball, rowing and swimming.

“We are proud to be associated with the Sports Talent Development Programme, it is a fantastic programme that any emerging athlete in the region aspires to become a part of. Since our involvement in the programme we have seen more and more athletes from Wellington representing New Zealand at an international level”, says Councilor Simon Woolf.

The sports selected have clear development pathways that are ‘age and stage’ appropriate, including measures in place to assess the impact of their athlete development and performance programmes. Wellington Regional Volleyball Association’s Leanne Turrell says “we are excited about being part of the Sports Talent Development Programme with Sport Wellington. Their guidance on developing athlete pathways supported with a dynamic talent development programme means we are better positioned to assist our emerging athlete’s transition into the performance environment. We’re more confident in keeping these athletes in the Wellington region once they leave school and we view this as a win for Wellington and look forward to more talented role models leading our community”.

Over the last three years the programme has transformed from being an outcome-based investment to now become a process-lead investment associated with developing talent. Mark Watson, Sport Wellington’s Performance Hub Senior Advisor, states “the impact of this approach is starting to come to fruition with athletes, parents and coaches now fully integrated into this process alongside staff associated with the Regional Sports Organisation’s community sport teams”. In 2016 each sport on the programme had more than 75% of their athletes representing New Zealand at an age group level, this was an increase of 25% from the previous year.

The Wellington City Council Talent Development Programme supports a number of talent development projects aligned to the national and regional sporting organisations. In 2017, fourteen applications were received with eight sports successful in securing funding to support a range of initiatives. These initiatives include; research into performance measures, development of processes for individual performance planning, as well as access to specialist services such as athlete life advice, nutrition and strength and conditioning.

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