Dewi Griffiths has been included among the Olympic Podium Potential athletes who will receive funding from British Athletics for 2017/18.
It is another major step forward for the 26-year-old Swansea Harrier, who marked his marathon debut with a brilliant fifth place finish in Frankfurt last month in 2:09.49 is among 112 athletes who have been offered membership to UK Sport’s National Lottery funded World Class Programme.
The initiative is aimed at supporting the delivery of success at the world’s most significant sporting events. Specifically, during the Tokyo cycle, the aim is to win medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
British Athletics has to be confident that any athlete offered membership of the WCP is a realistic potential 2020 or 2024 Olympic medallist in either individual or relay events, or a realistic potential 2020 or 2024 Paralympic medallist.
The breakdown in number of athletes who have been offered membership of WCP is – Olympic Podium (15), Paralympic Podium (31), Olympic Podium Potential (23), Paralympic Podium Potential (18) and Olympic Relays (25).
Sprint hurdler David Omoregie is the only other Welsh athlete in the Olympic Podium Potential group, while Seren Bundy-Davies is included in the relay group. Among the seven Para athletes who have moved up to Paralympic Podium funding is Wales’ World Para Athletics Championship gold medallist Olivia Breen, who is one of nine Welsh Para athletes given funding in the build up to Tokyo in 2020.
“On the back of the most successful World Para Athletics Championships in the modern era, and achieving our medal targets and finishing fourth in the placings table at the IAAF World Championships this summer, our World Class Programme reflects upon the criteria for medal potential as we progress through the Tokyo cycle ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020,” said British Athletics Performance Director, Neil Black.
Olympic Podium Potential
Dewi Griffiths, David Omoregie
Olympic Relays
Seren Bundy-Davies
Paralympic Podium
Hollie Arnold, Olivia Breen, Aled Davies, Kyron Duke, Sabrina Fortune, Jordan Howe
Paralympic Podium Potential
Rhys Jones, Steve Morris, Laura Sugar