Interview with UK Sport

Skandia Sail for Gold is part of UK Sport's World Class Events Programme. Esther Nicholls is the Major Events Consultant at UK Sport and here she talks about their continued support of Skandia Sail for Gold

Can you briefly explain UK Sport’s involvement in world class events such as Skandia Sail for Gold (SSFG)?
Our involvement is through the World Class Events Programme, which is a National Lottery funded programme, run by UK Sport. In advance of the home games the programme is designed to support two main objectives. Firstly to support the development of capacity with national governing bodies themselves, which in this case is the Royal Yachting Association. By this I mean helping them to build on their event management skills, and also for their official to upskill in advance of their involvement in staging of London 2012.

Also because we are the elite agency for sport, we are interested in medal success at the Olympics and Paralympics. Any event we support through the programme has got to showcase their athletes and provide them with competition opportunities, which will hopefully allow them to experience what it will be like to compete on the home waters in advance of 2012

Do you think having the opportunity to compete in world class events on home soil creates a home advantage?
I don’t think I would say home advantage is pivotal, but I am sure it will have an impact on them in terms of getting used to competing in front of people they know. Competing abroad is always going to be slightly different to competing at home, and we hope we can get our athletes best prepared for what it will be like come 2012.

How important is it to stage World Class events such as SSFG?
It is important for us to stage major events like Skandia Sail for Gold, and we see it as a four to six year programme. We have supported SSFG annually and I think the event has developed into more of an event and less of a competition. There is increased interest in the event and we have been able to expand on certain aspects, like making more provision and opportunities for spectators, and bringing in retail outlets so the public can experience a lot more of what sailing is about. The investment from UK Sport and National Lottery I hope has allowed the Regatta to develop into a world class regatta.

Why does UK Sport choose to support sailing?
The World Class Programme is based around supporting Olympic and Paralympic sports in the run up to 2012 and it is one of the programme objectives to help each of these sports to stage an event in the UK before 2012. GB’s sailing athletes have done very well at previous Olympic Games and there is good potential for the team  to achieve medal success again at 2012.

Also because sailing is quite a complex sport, from a UK Sport view it is important that we can get the resource and the officials ready to stage one of the more complicated sports on the Olympic programme. SSFG is critical to that in that it replicates the Olympic format, although not in terms of sailors because there will be more at SSFG than at 2012, but it does show every Olympic class being stages over the week, exactly as it will be come the Games.

Does UK Sport have plans beyond the Games for the World Class Events Programme?
We are in a good position with regards to our World Class Events Programme, which was part of the Government Comprehensive Spending Review in October, confirmed funding for the major events programme up to 2018.Our programme is now focused on securing events of strategic importance to the UK for the period 2013 – 2018. We have an ambition to establish the UK as the world’s leading host of major events and that process starts now with some key bids for that period.

 

17/5/2011 11:01