Australian bowls receives significant funding boost
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) will increase bowls’ funding by 59% to $5.6 million in the cycle leading up to the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games.
It will include a ramped up para program that will assist the Right at Home Para Jackaroos in their quest to improve on what was a sensational Birmingham campaign in 2022, where the team netted two silver medals and a fourth place.
The Jackaroos performance as a whole last year was the most successful overseas Commonwealth Games and second most fruitful overall, as Australia topped the sport’s medal tally by amassing three golds and a trio of silvers.
2026 will see bowls head to Bendigo for another home Games, with the previous two in 2006 and 2018 combining for 12 medals including eight gold.
Bowls Australia (BA) CEO Matthew Kennedy is thrilled to see the expanded funding for the high performance program as it will provide the athletes with an outstanding platform in the lead up to the sport’s pinnacle event in three years.
“The Commonwealth Games is the pinnacle multi-sport benchmark event for the sport of bowls and provides the platform for the Australian open and para Jackaroos to compete on the global stage alongside athletes from a wide scope of sports, backgrounds and beliefs, while more broadly providing bowls with an enormous opportunity for mainstream exposure and awareness,” Kennedy said.
“In recent years, the Jackaroos have celebrated considerable success at the Games, including the Jackaroos’ best ever performance at a Games in 2018, with five gold and two silver medals from ten disciplines, and their best performance abroad in Birmingham in 2022, so this funding commitment from the AIS will go a long way.”
[Words/Photographs: Bowls Australia]
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