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07/10/2002
Elite sports school will 'develop potential'
Sports Minister, Michael McGimpsey, has launched 'Sports Institute Northern Ireland’.
This sports excellence initiative aims to help the province's elite sportsmen, sportswomen and coaches to reach the top of their sport.
Launching the initiative at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Mr McGimpsey praised the partnership forged between the Sports Council for Northern Ireland and the University of Ulster to provide budding sports stars with a potential springboard to success.
As well as welcoming the opportunity for Northern Ireland to play its full part in the development of the Institute, the Minister said: “Northern Ireland has long yearned for a school of sporting excellence and I am delighted to launch this project. It will give our athletes the same opportunities to develop their potential as their counterparts in the other three home countries and will help them to improve their competitive capacity within the world’s sporting arena.”
Mr McGimpsey also stressed that the Executive shared his objective to increase participation in sport from the grassroots right through to elite level and said that he was confident that the Institute would play its part in providing that route to excellence for those who showed promise.
He added: “This project we are launching is just the start. It will take time to deliver all of the benefits but I am convinced that ‘Sports Institute Northern Ireland’ will help to put sport in our Province on a firm footing for the future.”
At the outset, ‘Sports Institute Northern Ireland’ will provide key facilities and specialist services for 60 sportsmen and women, both able-bodied and disabled, drawn from athletics, Gaelic football, hockey and rugby.
The Institute plans to increase the number of sports involved and the places available to 120. The remaining 60 participants will comprise 40 identified through the Talented Athlete Lottery programme and 20 from the University Athlete Scholarship programme.
The services to be provided include sports medicine, physiotherapy and injury management and sports science.
(MB)
This sports excellence initiative aims to help the province's elite sportsmen, sportswomen and coaches to reach the top of their sport.
Launching the initiative at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Mr McGimpsey praised the partnership forged between the Sports Council for Northern Ireland and the University of Ulster to provide budding sports stars with a potential springboard to success.
As well as welcoming the opportunity for Northern Ireland to play its full part in the development of the Institute, the Minister said: “Northern Ireland has long yearned for a school of sporting excellence and I am delighted to launch this project. It will give our athletes the same opportunities to develop their potential as their counterparts in the other three home countries and will help them to improve their competitive capacity within the world’s sporting arena.”
Mr McGimpsey also stressed that the Executive shared his objective to increase participation in sport from the grassroots right through to elite level and said that he was confident that the Institute would play its part in providing that route to excellence for those who showed promise.
He added: “This project we are launching is just the start. It will take time to deliver all of the benefits but I am convinced that ‘Sports Institute Northern Ireland’ will help to put sport in our Province on a firm footing for the future.”
At the outset, ‘Sports Institute Northern Ireland’ will provide key facilities and specialist services for 60 sportsmen and women, both able-bodied and disabled, drawn from athletics, Gaelic football, hockey and rugby.
The Institute plans to increase the number of sports involved and the places available to 120. The remaining 60 participants will comprise 40 identified through the Talented Athlete Lottery programme and 20 from the University Athlete Scholarship programme.
The services to be provided include sports medicine, physiotherapy and injury management and sports science.
(MB)
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