Fund injection for deaf athletes

Talented deaf athletes will now have more chance of achieving their potential and winning medals at next year's Deaflympics, thanks to a £125,000 grant to UK Deaf Sport, from Sport England.

The investment will fund work to help individual sports fully integrate deaf and hearing-impaired athletes within their development programmes. It will also enable the recruitment of a co-ordinator and performance manager to lead the preparations for next year's Deaflympics in Sofia.

Phillip Gerrard, chair of UK Deaf Sport, says this is a timely boost: "The funding will also support our long-term aim of talent development in Deaf sport, which will see us working with national sports bodies to establish and embed deaf performance pathways."

Team GB's impressive medal haul at the Paralympics has heightened the profile of disability sport and the government has said it is committed to supporting disabled athletes. Minister for sport, Hugh Robertson, says: "We want to build on all areas of disability sport, following the success of the Paralympics. The funding from Sport England to UK Deaf Sport will help athletes receive the high level of dedicated training that we know needs to be undertaken to compete effectively on the world stage."