Applications are now open for youngsters wanting to get into sports as a career to apply for grants worth up to £1,250.
They have until February 20 to put in a bid to the GLL Sport Foundation’s £1 million fund, operated by GLL social enterprise and supported by local authorities like Tower Hamlets in London’s East End.
The fund last year supported 1,500 athletes including 96 from Tower Hamlets alone.
Weightlifting sensation Mercy Brown, 18, an England International who comes from Poplar, was one of them.
“The Foundation helps me a lot,” she said. “I was a full-time student and trying to train as a full-time athlete.”
Mercy competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where she narrowly missed out on a bronze medal.
The foundation’s patron, Sally Gunnell, Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth 400m hurdles champion, said: “We are providing the next generation of athletes with tangible support to make a real difference to their sporting journeys.”
Most of the cash is going to athletes under 21, “to help the next generation of sporting talent” get off the ground.
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