POSTED: January 6th 2011
NewsUpdate
2012 sprint hopeful Ellington upset at missing out on funding from UKA
CHRISTIAN RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
LONDON, Jan 06: British sprinter James Ellington has criticised UK Athletics for not recognising his impressive performances and rising ranking by awarding him funding.
Ellington was speaking at the Fitbeats event, held by the University of Westminster, a one-day opportunity for members of the public to test their fitness to a soundtrack of top training tips from atheletes and coaches over fast paced music.
Excluding Dwain Chambers because of his doping conviction, Ellington is the only athlete in the top five in the country not to receive funding. UKA declined to comment on individual funding matters and has not responded even to Ellington himself. He said: “I do not know why UKA will not and has not supported me, despite writing a long letter to Charles van Commenee the head coach of UKA, with no response.”
UKA said that while it strives to follow its own guidelines in terms of awarding funding, it could not comment on "any individual's funding matters." Questions were referred to the official website http://www.uka.org.uk.
Ellington, currently ranked No4 in UK for 100m, spoke of his disappointment that despite his high ranking, he still struggles financially: “It's frustrating because I'm just trying to make ends meet, pay my rent from week to week. Then there's athletes ranked lower than me who are driving a free, fully-insured BMW.”
He was referring to a sponsorship deal with BMW which has seen up to 25 cars made available for 2012 hopefuls. Despite being in the running to line up against world record-holder and Olympic champion Usain Bolt at next year's Games, the absence of funding approval means Ellington cannot benefit from such sponsorship assistance either.
Promising athletes
He added: “There's all sorts of deals given out by Lucozade, Powerade and car companies to some who are ranked as low as 38th.”
The UKA has strict guidelines on which athletes receive funding but one of its main aims is to support athletes who “show promise to achieve success at London 2012” - which, Ellington would argue, he has.
Ellington's coach John Powell echoed his athlete's comments by saying “It's a no-brainer; If someone who is ranked 38th is receiving funding, why is he [Ellington] being frozen out?” Powell also spoke about how Ellington, a former European Gold medallist, was also involved in Met-Track a London-wide initiative to get young people out of gangs and crime through sport.
Met-Track began in 2005 and since then has spread across 23 boroughs in London encouraging young people to become involved in sport under the encouragement of international level athletes and coaches. Powell spoke proudly of the “85pc non-re-offending rate” of the initiative and the fact that several 'graduates' had gone on to professional athletic careers (More information: www.met-track.com).
Keywords · Ellington · UKA · London 2012 · Met-Track · Bolt
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