Top athletes to get more

Cheer up softball - you've just been awarded $255,000 for coming second at the world championships.

New Zealand sport's funding agency, Sparc, announced increased grants for its top athletes yesterday and continued support for athletes in non-Olympic sports such as softball.

Softball gets $255,000 for securing a medal at the world championships, the amount calculated on $15,000 per player in Saskatoon.

Sparc's general manager high performance, Martin Toomey, will work with Softball New Zealand on how it should be invested but the players, especially those retiring, should not expect any cash-filled envelopes.

"We'll sit down with softball and say `where to from here, what is your programme'," Toomey said.

"What they'll do is work out how best to portion it. It is not just about the 17 players who went away, some of them are going to be retiring so there is no point. This is an investment, it is about helping people continue to stay at that level."

Sparc's announcement on what they call PEGs (performance enhancement grants) was notable on two fronts. Firstly, there is an increase from $40,000 to $60,000 for world or Olympic champions and, secondly, there is the introduction of multi-year grants for proven athletes such as rower Mahe Drysdale.

"Someone like Mahe, who has won three world championships and an Olympic [bronze] medal, you are basically going to sit down with and say this is a four-year deal and then you make sure he is meeting the milestones along the way," Toomey said.

In short, New Zealand has four world champions who get $60,000 - Valerie Vili, cyclist Alison Shanks, boardsailor Tom Ashley and BMX rider Sarah Walker.

Drysdale and all other medallists at Olympic and world championship level get $55,000, up considerably from the $35,000 previously.

Toomey said the change was made after feedback from the sports after last year's Olympic Games in Beijing.

"You don't win Olympic medals as a part-timer and we were paying some like they were part-timers, so this is recognition that that needed to change. We are looking after the ones we think are going to win medals.

"The sports are rapt. We spent a lot of time with them to see what their needs were and the feedback was to put more into the best."

All told, 90 athletes will benefit from increased support.

The total cost is $4.5 million, the same as the last funding period.

It leaves $500,000 in Sparc's funding kitty, which is regarded as a "buffer zone" because several athletes could get a bump up the funding bands given there are world championships this year in swimming, athletics, rowing, sailing and triathlon.

- © Fairfax NZ News