Article- Athlete individual sponsorship

http://rmarsh2jn2053.blogspot.com/

With the announcement that athletics was to get a 5% funding cut from UK Sport on Wednesday afternoon for the forthcoming Olympic games to be held here in London in 2012, there is more pressure than ever on individual athletes to find sponsorship to help cover for their careers.

Added to this the ever increasing problem of fuel and fuel prices, and with less money coming from the private sector because of the current international economic crisis, athletes are finding funding a lot more difficult to come by.

Wigan athlete Jenny Meadows is one of these athletes, a runner of international standard for the past ten years, she has had to travel all around the world to compete and with the ever increasing economic crisis, this is getting more and more expensive. It isn’t just the competitions, during the winter; athletes will often go abroad to train.

Over her career, Jenny has travelled 65,000miles around the world, and this naturally, costs money. A map showing just how far and wide Jenny has travelled, is found at http://rmarsh2jn2053.blogspot.com/ . Jenny has several sponsors to her name, such as JJB and allcom UK, but is often at a disadvantage to her southern compatriots, who are able to get many more sponsors in and around London, being situated in Wigan, a northern Lancashire town means sponsors are less easy to cross.

Of course many might wonder, that if the athletes cannot afford the transportation, that they should find another career, but that has never been an option for Jenny, who has “dreamt of going to Olympics since aged 7 so Beijing was very much the realisation of a lifelong dream”. Jenny made it to Beijing this summer, but the dream does not stop there, next year she plans to reach the European Indoor finals in Torino in Italy, and the World Championships finals in Berlin in Germany. It is also important of course, to bear in mind that much of athletes in come comes from personal sponsorships, just as much if not more so than prize money.

So sponsorship is vital, and with the reduction in Olympic funding and fuel prices, its more important than ever, which is why Jenny needs all the sponsors she can get to aid her to win the medals she is capable of for Britain.

(Image from IAAF.org)

Jenny Meadows Career Map

Here is a map of the destinations which Jenny Meadows has gone to during her career, the map clearly shows the distances involved and how much travelling is required, which of course costs money, and the further you travel, the more you pay, which is why sponsorship is so important to these athletes.


total miles travelled to destinations, 32,860miles,(x2)for the return trips = 65,720 miles travelled.



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News story in form of map

This is a news story in the form of a google map, the story is ryanairs decision to end their association with blackpool airports and all services to Dublin and Girona over a £10 tax the lancashire airport are due to begin in the new year on every passenger.


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Preston City public opinion on the olympics

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The return of the nodder.

So its been a good couple of weeks for Paula Radcliffe, which is good news indeed after her struggling performance in the Olympics in Beijing, where she came in 23rd place after suffereing a stress fracture on her femur.



The great south run was the perfect opportunity to remind everyone just what she was capable of, and dominated the event, winning in a new record time of 51.11 minutes for the 10 miles.

Paula followed that up with a superb run in the New York marathon, winning it for the third time just a week or so ago.

So although many wrote her off at the Olympics, I think shes shown everyone just what she can do, and surely is a contender once more for the London Marathon in April.

Yet more bad press for athletics

Since the superbly organised and well run Olympic games in Beijing, in China over the summer, the only news athletics has had has revolved around drugs and cheating. And today is no different.

Athletics coach Trevor Graham has been sentenced to house arrest for a year after he lied to agents investigating the Balco doping scandal.

Graham had previously supplied the US Anti-Doping Agency with a previously undetectable steroid with sparked a massive American drugs investigation.

BALCO

Balco had previously been invovled with Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin, all coached by Graham, aswell as Dwain Chambers. Other sports such as the NFL and the MLB also had several players involved with Balco. Graham's deliverence of this previously un-detectable steroid led to 20 competitions being found in use of the drug.

Following on from the 7 Russian athletes being banned, although these athletes are in the mentality "winning at all costs", this mentality quite obviously is not working, so surely its time for a change?

Bans and suspensions

7 Russian female athletes were banned today by the Russian Athletic federation for manipulating doping samples.

They will now sevrve a two year ban dating back to the time of the samples, and so they will return for the world championships in Berlin in 2010. They had been provisionally suspended for 1 and a half years in July and all of them missed the Beijing Olympics, which leads me to think, with each and every athletic federation clamping down and getting tougher and tougher on this cheating.

Is it really worth it? Athletes taking this risk, getting caught and losing 2 years or more. 2 years of competition, of income, of sponsorship. You could say that even more importantly than that, the reputation of these athletes.

It may be getting to the point where Athletes may now start to think, is it really worth the risk?

Commonwealth Youth Games

The commonwealth youth games ended last week and it was a terrific performance by the English team.

Finishing third overall with 41 medals is a fantastic achievement and gives us real hope of a good performance at the next Olympics, here, in London, in just under four years time.

18 of our 41 medals were gold, and we were only surpassed by the hosts India, who will be hosting the 2010 senior commonwealth games, and not surprisingly, the Australians.

Encouringly, 13 of our medals were won in Athletics events, with another 14 coming from the swimming pool, which follows on from our superb Olympic and Paralympic performances in the water this summer in China.

The athletics result in particular should stand out, after a poor performance in the birds nest stadium, just 5 medals compared to our swimming and cycling performances. This was an exceptional achievement by everyone in India, now back in the U.K the U.K athletics board can take that futher and guide our young athletes to realise their potential and become world beaters.

They have four years, and possibly the best four years they will have, to progress and train and take on the world stage. The U.K is pouring more money than ever into athletics, and so now is the time to become one of the worlds greatest athletic nations, and on the base of this performance last week in India, the future is very bright indeed.

2011 Youth Games

The 2011 Commonwealth youth games are to be held on the Isle of Man, which should be a delight to the U.K and surely an advantage. It will be just one year before we hold the Olympics in London, and so any athletes may be just too young to the 2012 games, but who knows.

Commonwealth Youth Games

The third commonwealth youth games are taking place this week in Pune in India, and so far, with 3 days still to go, England have done fantastically well.

Right now they are second in the table with 11 medals, 7 of which have been gold. Only the hosts, India, have faired better.



Future- London 2012

2 of our 7 gold medals have come in heavy throwing competitions, the shot put, and the hammer throw. This, coupled with the news earlier this week of the appointment of Bob Weir, puts the U.K in very good stead for the years to come.

Hopefully England can maintain their form over the next 3 days in India and finish on Saturday in a promising position in the table.

Bob Weir appointed by UK Athletics

Bob Weir has been appointed head of heavy throws coach by the UKA.

Someone with his wealth of experience in these very specialised events is great for the prospects of London 2012, in areas which we have struggled in lately, especially in Beijing where we had just two finalists. Hopefully after this wise appointment, the U.K shall be vastly more succesful in London.

Long awaited return

Bob has spent several years at Stanford University in America and believes being abroad has given him a different perspective so changes may well be afoot under his coaching.

Introductory Hello.

Hi,

My name is Richard Marsh and im going to be writing this blog as part of my university course module. The blog will initially be about athletics with a focus upon the North west region. After the module has finished i may blog about other sports.