Non Stanford is supporting TASS 10th birthday celebration at Houses of Parliament on 13th November.
Celebrating its tenth birthday on 13th November, the Talented Athlete Sponsorship Scheme (TASS) has provided crucial support for many of the UK’s sporting hopefuls.
To mark the event, ITU World Triathlon world champion, Non Stanford (one of the beneficiaries from the TASS programme) has been invited to a special birthday reception at the Houses of Parliament on 13th November. Non is also one of the athletes who is featured on the special event birthday card.
Guy Taylor, National Director of TASS said, “We are delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate our 10th birthday at such a splendid location as the Houses of Parliament and hosted by Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson. TASS began in the Autumn of 2003 when names like canoeists and London 2012 medallists Liam Heath and Jon Schofield were in the first batch of Award recipients. Since then TASS has given over £30 million in support to over 6,000 athletes across 50 sports.”
The British Triathlon Federation and TASS have enjoyed a productive partnership since 2004. In total 97 triathletes have been helped by TASS to the tune of an estimated £582,000. Typically support includes equipment purchase, access to physiotherapy, strength & conditioning and coaching support amongst other elements.
Stanford said, “TASS supported me as a triathlete long before I’d had any major results. In fact, it was right at the start of my career when I’d joined the Birmingham University Triathlon team and just started to compete at lower-level international events.”
Non hit the headlines with her ITU World Triathlon Championships Series Grand Final win in Hyde Park but showed her potential some time ago.
Whilst completing her degree in Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Birmingham, she took up triathlon as a second-year student. As a talented former youth-level competitive swimmer and successful track athlete, Stanford realised that multi-discipline events might be for her and she began training with the University of Birmingham Triathlon Team.
TASS began funding her in 2009 and she began competing internationally. 2011 saw her take top-10 finishes at the ITU Triathlon World Cup, the ITU Triathlon European Cup and the ITU Sprint Triathlon Pan American Cup.
2012 was her breakthrough year when she won gold in the ITU Mixed Relay World Championships with Vicky Holland, Jonathan Brownlee and Will Clarke, and an individual gold in the U23 world championships.
Guy Taylor said, “We are a well-established scheme with a great track record. This is not about talent identification, this is about nurturing athletes who are already known to be talented and are wisely pursuing their education at the same time as a demanding sports career. These are exactly the kind of athletes that are surviving on minimal funding, can spend weeks out of training because they cannot afford a physio appointment and need all the help that they can get to stay in the sport as a pipeline of talent for Rio 2016, Korea 2018 and beyond.”
Non concluded, “To have TASS invest time, resources and money into me was a huge bonus and showed that people had confidence in me to progress in the sport even though I was so new to it at the time. That was a massive boost. It’s hard to believe that six years later I’m world champion. The support from TASS definitely helped me along the way.”
Happy 10th birthday TASS. Many happy returns.
