The ceremony was held to honour the work of both sponsors and sports organisations in developing sport in Wales.
Home to the 2010 Ryder Cup, The Celtic Manor Resort has provided a cash injection of £125,000 to Welsh Athletics over a five-year period. It also provides free office accommodation to the governing body for the sport in Wales.
In 2000, Welsh Athletics negotiated a five-year deal worth £25,000 per year to the sport. This rose to a value of £30,000 in 2002 with the inclusion of free office accommodation. Each year this investment has been matched by Sportsmatch Cymru.
The revenue generated from the sponsorship is used to fund Welsh Athletics’ development programme, aimed at developing athletics at all levels within the community, from grassroots through to elite levels.
Launched in 1992, Sportsmatch Cymru is the Welsh Assembly Government’s ‘£ for £’ business incentive scheme. Managed by the Sports Council for Wales, it is designed to encourage increased commercial sponsorship of grassroots sport.
To date, the scheme has benefited over 1,300 sports projects across Wales, resulting in £7.5million being pumped into Welsh communities by the scheme and its commercial partners.
