Eight local athletes awarded grants towards travel costs

Eight local athletes have been awarded with a special grant supported by sportscotland to help sportspeople in regional and rural Scotland access competitive and training opportunities.

The Athlete Travel Award Scheme, now in its fourth year after a pause last year due to COVID-19, is a partnership between sportscotland and the participating local authorities in Scotland - Orkney Islands, Western Isles, Shetland Islands and Highlands Councils.

The Scheme helps ‘elite pathway’ athletes – athletes with potential to reach elite levels of competition and performance - from Scotland’s regional areas gain better access to competitive and training opportunities without having to relocate from their communities.

The athletes from Orkney, who will each receive up to £750 towards costs of travel between now and December 2021, are:

• Finlay Scott, 17 – Squash
• George Ewing, 13 – Football
• Kelly Skea, 22 - Weightlifting
• Louis Hancock, 14 – Football
• Matthew Byers, 30 – Weightlifting
• Ross Sinclair, 19 – Weightlifting
• Rebecca Reid, 28 – Badminton
• Shannon Leslie, 14 – Badminton

sportscotland has allocated each of the participating local authorities £10k for their Schemes, with the Councils then required to top this up with £2k of their own funding plus the equivalent of £3k of management and administrative time.

Councillor Gwenda Shearer is Chair of Orkney Islands Council's Education, Leisure and Housing Committee.

She said: "I’d congratulate each of our Orkney athletes on their awards and very much hope this practical support will help put them on a level playing field with athletes around Scotland, so they have every chance to develop to their full potential.”

Stewart Harris, Chief Executive, sportscotland, said: “This has been an incredibly challenging period for Scottish sport but athletes and coaches have shown real resilience and commitment in finding ways to continue their training during the pandemic.

“We recognise the specific challenges faced by island athletes, especially at this time, so it’s important to be flexible in how we provide support for the Athlete Travel Award Scheme. By working in partnership with Orkney Islands Council we can deliver services locally through the sportscotland institute of sport in Orkney while providing additional support to allow talented athletes to travel to competitions and progress in their chosen sport.”

“It’s fantastic that another eight athletes from Orkney will benefit from the scheme and we wish them every success.”

One of the athletes, weightlifter Kelly Skea, says the award is a much valued support as she aims to compete more globally: “The funding for me will aid my frequent travels to the mainland for valuable training with the best coaches and Athletes in the country! As well as getting down to competitions to keep improving my official total to work my way up the rankings and hopefully qualify for more international meets.”

This year’s Athlete Travel Scheme featured a bespoke, more flexible application process to address ongoing uncertainty over the sporting calendar due to the pandemic, with two application rounds – July and October.

Athletes are able to apply to both rounds, however the maximum any individual will receive in total is £1,500. Amounts received are based on a number of criteria including their forecasted Competition and Training schedule, understanding of the Sports Performance Pathway and National Rankings. The application process also requires athletes to evidence how the grant will improve their performance, provide them access to quality training opportunities and improve their sports or club environment.

The next round will open for applications in October, covering the period January – April 2022. More details will be available in coming weeks.

Update: The scheme opened for Round two applications on 4 October. Find out more and download application forms from the Council website.

Here's what each of the other seven athletes have to say about their grant:

Finlay Scott, 17 – Squash: "The funding will allow me to attend Scotland training sessions in Edinburgh each month, this will help with my progression to hopefully be able to achieve a medal placing at the Scottish junior nationals which would allow me to go to the European championships with the Scotland team."

George Ewing, 13 – Football: "The funding will have a big impact on my development because it will allow me to travel to play in more games and help me to make more training sessions. Extra games give me more experience of playing against the best players in Scotland at my age. I also feel the training sessions allow me to access the ideas and skills which will take my development up another level."

Louis Hancock, 14 – Football: “I am very grateful to receive the Travel Award. It will enable me to continue to travel away virtually every weekend to play for Ross County under 15s over the next few months. It will also help me attend the various training sessions happening during the October break.”

Matthew Byers, 30 – Weightlifting:  "This funding will make a real difference to my development as an athlete, over the past couple of years I’ve reached the point I need to look further afield than Scotland to find competitions at an appropriate level. Obviously that comes with a large increase in cost, so this funding will give me a better opportunity to give my training and recovery undivided attention (without having to worry about travel costs etc).

"As I move into competing at British standards and hopefully pushing into Team Scotland, the rigors of training and competing will no doubt increase considerably, and being able to focus more fully on that will allow me to excel.

"I’m really glad to be in receipt of this award, after such a dreich time of it over the past 18 months I’m excited to be able to get back to doing what I love."

Matthew - Swimming Pools Team Leader with the Council - recently headed to Glasgow City Barbell in Clydebank to compete in one of the British Open Series virtual competitions. You can read more about that here.

Ross Sinclair, 19 – Weightlifting: "The funding will allow for me to travel to more competitions and training sessions to further my experience in my lifting career.
"It will allow for me to Experience more coaching from well know Commonwealth and Olympic level coaches."

Rebecca Reid, 28 – Badminton: ""I am very grateful to have been selected to receive ATAS funding. The funding will make traveling off island to high level badminton competitions far more accessible.
"Being able to compete in these events will help me climb up the Scottish rankings whilst also gaining valuable competition experience looking ahead to 2025 Island Games."

Shannon Leslie, 14 – Badminton: "This funding will help with my development because I will be able to get away to more training session and camps, which will improve my skills when attending badminton competitions."