Young athletes get cash backing

MEMBER for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters, presented certificates and money to recipients of the Federal Government’s Local Sporting Champions grant program on Tuesday.

The money is aimed at supporting coaches, officials, and competitors aged between 12 and 18 to travel to events across the state, country, or overseas.

Siblings Jemma and Kai Norton both received grants for their high-level participation in athletic throwing sports.

Jemma has placed fifth in the state for hammer-throw at nationals and said the money “definitely helps.”

“It’s a very expensive trip to Queensland,” she said.

“We were there for over a week, just to be a part of the Victorian team is already expensive, and then you’ve got to pay for being in your specific event, and accommodation, and flights, and all that type of stuff.”

Kai has medalled at a national championship for shotput and said the funding helped his parents to decide if they could send them both siblings to competitions.

“Being able to get that little extra bit of help with all the costs just gave us a better chance to be able to go and do all these things,” he said.

Seventeen-year-old Lacrosse player Christian Iuliano currently competes in the state league and with the under-18 representative team in Melbourne on the weekends.

He said he is currently playing at a high level despite not being able to train with others during the week as there no established team in Bendigo.

“I can do stuff at home by myself but that’s about it,” he said. “The grant just helps with the travel, and also the equipment’s very expensive because it comes from America.”

Ruby Conti represented Australia last year at the junior gymnastics world championships.

“Australian gymnastics is all self-funded in terms of travelling overseas and buying the tracksuit and it all adds up really quickly,” she said.

“We’re wanting to get more experience in Europe and to do that you obviously have to travel over there, so in that way it would help.”