“Our staff are working hard to set up an application process for the Emergency Relief Fund that enables us to provide funding as quickly as possible to those who need it most.

“Given the enormity of the current crisis, we anticipate receiving a significant number of applications, and we’ll need to direct funds to where they are most needed.” 

Sport Wales and Welsh Government have worked together to identify an initial fund of up to £8.1million in addition to the Emergency Relief Fund. This will be used to support sports clubs and our well-established partner networks who are so vital in ensuring the nation is able to remain active and enjoy all the health and wellbeing benefits that sport brings. Sport Wales will continue to seek the views of the sector to shape further requirements and ensure that this fund complements the other support programmes available from the Welsh Government.

Davies added:
“We’re also working through other sources of funding and support so that we maximise the help we can give.  It’s a quickly changing situation and we are communicating with our partners and clubs as much as possible. We have already identified an initial fund of up to £8.1million which will allow us to continue to support our partners beyond the Emergency Relief Fund. We will be working closely with our partners over the coming weeks to determine together how best to utilise the fund to support sport in Wales.”

More information is available:

• A Q&A document on the Emergency Relief Fund. This will be updated when more information is available.
• A dedicated e-mail address for questions on emergency funding for clubs emergencyrelief@sport.wales
• Information about other grants available from Sport Wales.
• Our dedicated Club Solutions resource to support clubs and volunteers.

Elsewhere in the men’s race, Alex Carcas tactically retired after a mistake to focus on the relay tomorrow, and Harrison McCartney finished in 68th, after battling through from an early start, making the tracks for everyone else. Ali Masson finished in 60th after a race he described as ‘horrible, horrible, horrible’ and Nathan Lawson and Matt Fellbaum both achieved top 50s, coming in 47th and 39th respectively. 

In the women’s race, history was also made, with 3 top 20 finishes in the JWOC long race for the first time ever, with GB one of only four countries with this strength in depth (a group which notably doesn’t include Finland or Sweden). This means that the relay A team for tomorrow all ran exceptionally, with Jenny Ricketts and Fiona Bunn separated by just 6 seconds in 13th and 14th respectively, and Grace Molloy in 20th to post her second top 20 in her first ever JWOC races, following on from her 19th in the middle final. Fiona said of her first top 15, ‘I was pleased to finally get a decent result, even after a shaky start to the race. It was a tough one, but I'm very proud of the whole team's performances and super excited for the relay!!!’ 

Meanwhile, Chloe Potter ran herself to 71st place, about a minute behind Alice Rigby, who finished in 65th, with Cecilie Andersen less than 3 minutes off a top 20, finishing 34th. 

Full results are available at http://online4.tulospalvelu.fi/tulokset/en/2017_jwoc_long/. 

Alongside Fiona, we are also excited for the relay races tomorrow, where both the Men’s and Women’s teams have real chances of a podium finish. Follow the event live from the links on the JWOC website, with the Men off at 11:30 BST and the Women next at 12:45 BST. 

Credit - David Bunn