Cash for coaches (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Cash for coaches

4:10pm Wednesday 27th August 2008 in The Chiswick

As the Beijing Olympics ended, coaches across the country are turning their thoughts to preparing the next gold hopefuls for the London Olympics.

With a severe shortage of qualified coaches in the capital the London coaching bursary scheme has been attempting to help plug the gap by supplying bursaries to hundreds of Londoners.

More than 800 London coaches have already benefited from funded sports training including Gurpal Sahota, 23, from Heston, who works for Brentford FC community trust canoeing.

He said: “My company would have had to have paid so much more money for me to do the training. It made the whole course and the prerequisites so much more accessible and so much more beneficial.”

The bursary offers individuals two thirds of the cost of their coaching qualification and encourages coaches to work towards accredited qualifications which Mr Sahota hopes to complete in the near future.

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