Snow sports gets big boost

CANOE racing and snow sports were the big winners of yesterday’s sport core investment allocations, with significant gains in funding from High Performance Sport New Zealand.

A total of $36 million was invested in what marks the midpoint of the Tokyo Olympiad cycle.

Canoe racing has been elevated from a tiertwo to a tierone sport. Its funding has increased from $150,000 to $1.9 million.

Snow sports has jumped from targeted other to tier two, moving from $250,000 to $2.25 million.

Allocations were based on contestable criteria including past performance, future potential and quality of each sport’s high performance programme and campaigns.

Men’s softball also received an increase — $50,000 — to assist its World Cup preparations and Olympic weightlifting got an additional $20,000.

Boxing and squash receive an additional $15,000 and $25,000 respectively while surfing gains $20,000 as the sport prepares for its Olympic debut.

The biggest losers were women’s softball — down from $150,000 to $30,000 — and bowls, down $50,000 to $200,000.

Meanwhile, $500,000 of Paralympics New Zealand’s allocation will be transferred to Athletics New Zealand as a result of para athletics’ successful integration into the athletics programme.