New Zealand's most successful sports "will receive a funding boost ahead of the Rio Olympics, while basketball was another winner" from Wednesday's High Performance Sport NZ investment announcement, according to the APNZ.
From '14, a further NZ$2.2M ($1.8M) will be invested, providing NZ$33.7M a year "to support 13 targeted sports and 18 campaign sports, with the tier one group again benefactors." After a year in which 20 New Zealand athletes or teams stood on the podium at world championships in Olympic disciplines, HPSNZ CEO Alex Baumann "backed the targeting of successful sports." He said, "These results once again demonstrate that our strategy of targeting sports with the potential to win on the world stage is a successful formula." Aside from the top tier, Basketball NZ "was a big winner," receiving NZ$200,000 "from the national funding agency after being left out in the cold in previous years." Baumann said, "We did not support Basketball NZ last year because we did not have confidence that they were tracking towards the Olympic Games in 2020. However, the Tall Blacks have qualified for the World Cup and they have a number of promising young players in their ranks" (APNZ, 12/18).
