As part of the British Athletics Performance Pathway strategy to support young talented athletes and in partnership with SportsAid, 161 athletes received support to aide their preparation and performance targets throughout 2017.

SportsAid is the charity for sports people, raising funds from institutional and commercial sectors, to help the next generation of young British sportsmen and women to succeed. SportsAid supports more than a thousand athletes from over 60 sports every year.

A key part of the Performance Pathway, the programme supports the next generation of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, including age group champions and a number of athletes who have recently stepped up to senior international stage. Support is also offered to athletes in off-track events such as mountain running and cross country.

Among those to receive grants over the past 12 months include Finette Agyapong who secured European U23 gold over 200m last summer, alongside three World Para Athletics Junior champions; Jack Agnew, Craig Boardman and Karim Chan. Both Agyapong and Boardman have progressed onto the WCP programme for 2018.

Continuing the list of those who are valuably supported includes European junior silver medallists Jona Efoloko and Markhim Lonsdale and U23 silver medallists Daniel Rowden. Alongside these are 2016 World Mountain Running bronze medallist Bronwen Jenkinson, as well as Scarlet Dale and Heidi Davies who have been a part of medal winning junior teams over the mountainous terrain.

Furthermore, there have been senior appearances by supported athletes such as Zak Skinner, Martina Barber, Shannon Hylton and Jessica Turner at the World Para Athletics Championships and IAAF World Championships 2017 respectively.

Nominations for 2018 have been made and awards will be allocated later on this year.

For more details on SportsAid, please visit these pages.