To make up for some of the lost income and expenses that Irish triathlon clubs suffered this year, ten Irish clubs will get to share a COVID-19 support fund of 103,475 euros. The financial support comes from Sport Ireland and Triathlon Ireland. The governing bodies hope to compensate for some of the financial losses that clubs have experienced due to the cancellation of races, decreased membership income and the added costs due to the changes required for social distancing measurements. Each club will receive a share ranging from 1,500 to 29,000 euros.
The “Club Resilience Fund” is an initiative of Sport Ireland, but Triathlon Ireland topped the available funds with another three percent to make sure all clubs would receive what they need. Before receiving these funds, clubs had to prove the necessity of this support by meeting certain requirements and formally applying.
One of the ten clubs that applied for the Club Resilience Fund is Athlone Triathlon Club. The club’s Chairperson, Gerald Lynch, explains his club is dependent on the income of two races that it organizes on a yearly basis.
“With the loss of these races in 2020 it was going to potentially force us to have to increase the costs of training for our members quite substantially to prevent the club from losing money for the second consecutive year. This fund, however, has put us in a position to be able to continue to invest in this training for our junior and senior athletes and also to continue the work on making our sport accessible to everyone within our community with the initiatives we had planned, but without the financial worry,” Lynch said in an interview with Endurance.biz.
