WORLD CLASS athletes in the East Midlands region are boosted by the announcement that £2.7 million will be made available for elite training facilities that will form part of the UK Sports Institute.
Rutland Sailing Club and Highfields Sports Club in Nottingham were awarded the grants by the Sport England Lottery Fund as part of the facility development programme for the English Institute of Sport (EIS), part of the UK Sports Institute.
Steve Cram, Chairman of the EIS and member of the UK Sports Institute Board, said: "Our aim is to provide our world class sportsmen and sportswomen with the best high performance training environment in the world.
"These new facilities, when added to the £20 million development at Loughborough University, the planned improvements at Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre and the opening of the National Ice Centre in Nottingham represents a massive £50 million lottery investment in the EIS network of elite facilities in this region."
RUTLAND SAILING Club received an award of £890,016 towards overall costs of £1,146,543 to provide a national training venue for the Royal Yachting Association’s World Class Performance Programme. The club will benefit from new facilities including disabled changing rooms, parking and storage areas, lecture and sail training rooms, sailing school provision, residential accommodation, two extra rescue and training boats and boat launching facilities. The RYA and Sailability accommodation, wet and dry catering areas will be upgraded to an appropriate level for national sailing groups.
David Wilkins, Rear Commodore of Rutland Sailing Club, welcomed the grant.
"The upgrading of facilities at the club will provide all users, both RSC members and visitors with some of the best facilities available anywhere. The RYA regional, national and international squads will be able to come to Rutland and benefit from the world class training and racing facilities.
"Disabled sailors, who can compete on equal terms with able-bodied sailors will have all the necessary support facilities thanks to the generous contribution of the Sport England Lottery Fund. Rutland Sailing Club is proud to be recipients of this grant and would like to thank all the partnership funders, including Sailability, RAF and Anglian Water for their support."
HIGHFIELDS SPORTS Club in Nottingham will build two new floodlit synthetic sports pitches with changing facilities and seminar/coaching rooms as part of its initiative to create a centre of excellence for hockey. The £2,006,330 project will include one water-based hockey pitch, one multi-sport sand-based pitch and one older sand-based pitch will be replaced.
"This Project is vitally important to hockey in the East Midlands. The Lottery Sports Fund Grant will not only enable us to better support the growing number of elite athletes in the region but will also benefit younger players. The new facilities at Highfields Sports Club will breathe life into hockey in our area and are a much needed boost to sport in what was a relatively neglected area of the country", said Rob Morris, Chairman of Highfields Sports Club.