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Performance Programme Update

I have recently taken on oversight of the Talent and Performance programme following the departure of Jackie Newton. Following some recent enquiries, I thought it would be helpful to clarify how the Performance programme is supported.

The Performance programme is solely senior squads and competitions and is focused on delivering medals at World Orienteering Championships (WOC).

The process of confirming funding with Sport England for 2017 – 2021 has been challenging and led to delays in communication with coaches, managers and athletes. Once clarity was achieved we have moved as quickly as possible to clarify the implications upon the Talent programme and the Performance programme for 2017. The changes in funding have been significant to the Talent programme and the reduction has meant British Orienteering is no longer able to employ a member of staff to manage Talent and Performance jointly. However, the funding amount directly from British Orienteering for the Performance programme has not changed over the last few years. 

Each year recently British Orienteering has provided £20,000 towards the Performance programme with the target of achieving medals at WOC. In addition, a further £5,000 was provided in 2015 as extra support towards a home WOC. There is no indication from the board that funding for the programme is to change in the future.

For WOC in 2017, the total costs of sending and supporting a full team are anticipated to be around £26,000. The British Orienteering funding lets us make sure the team have key items covered including entries, accreditation, team management and physio support, as well as providing a subsidy towards other costs incurred by athletes including food, accommodation, hire cars and fuel.

The £20,000 from British Orienteering means that we have been able to cap the total cost of these items to be £260 per athlete for the week, but alongside that cost, our athletes are asked to fund the cost of their own travel to/from the competition. The cost of £260 plus the travel costs means that the average cost to our athletes of representing British Orienteering at the World Championships is around £500.

It is worth noting that our athletes also need to self-fund the travel and subsistence costs of preparatory camps and international competitions throughout the year, and that the level of funding from British Orienteering does mean that World Cups are not subsidised in any way and that World Cup teams cannot be supported in the same way as at the World Championships.

The team are working together in various ways to raise funds to help with all these costs. Some members have asked us how they can support the team further, and we are pleased to help publicise that one way to do so is by contributing towards their costs via the fundraising page.

We will be reviewing the Performance programme in detail following the World Orienteering Championships in Estonia and assessing the best way to continue to deliver the Performance programme with the funding available. We will be asking athletes, coaches and others to feed into this review to ensure that we can deliver the best experience for our athletes with the money available and recognise the cost to athletes involved with the programme.

Craig Anthony
canthony@britishorienteering.org.uk

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