A move to relocate Olympic training bases to Scotland has been challenged by the UK elite athletes' governing body.
UK Sport will resist calls from the Scottish Government to force a relocation of some of Britain’s high-performance sport programmes despite calls to funnel more of its investment north of the Border.
British Curling, which is supported by a hefty subsidy from Sportscotland, is the only Olympic-level governing body fully based outside England, and the position has prompted talks to divert elite centres elsewhere, the Scotsman reported.
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The discussions have been spurred by the disappointment at British Judo’s decision to largely abandon its Edinburgh-based hub for one in the Midlands following the 2016 Olympics .
Talks are understood to be at an advanced stage to better integrate the Scottish Institute of Sport’s well-respected science and medical set-up into a UK-centric system with its counterparts in the other home nations.
However, Dame Katherine Grainger, UK Sport’s chair, said at the Gold Coast at the Commonwealth Games there would be no quota system imposed by the quango to give Scotland, as well as Northern Ireland and Wales, a larger slice of the sporting action.
This came despite informal talks on the matter with Aileen Campbell, Scotland’s Sports Minister.
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Ms Grainger said: "Scotland, rightly so, is very proud of a lot of the venues they rightly have.
“A lot of it is very organic on where the coaching is, where the favourites are, rather than pinpointing paces.
“It’s where the need is.
"Scotland does have amazing centres – look at Inverclyde.
“Whether or not a sport might be based there, or where training camps happen when people are coming over, is a different question, but discussions are ongoing on how we can help best using Scottish facilities.
“It’s not finances, it’s as things go on and there’s not a timeframe for it.”
Ms Grainger said sports with a need for change would be told what was available, with training camp sites expected to be pushed strongly ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
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Ms Campbell said she believed there remained some opportunities to benefit more from in-house investment.
She said: “We had a really positive engaging discussion with Katherine.
“She’s really committed and dedicated to sport.
"We’re lucky in that she knows and understands Scotland very well, so we have somebody who is familiar with the landscape, but who recognised the vast investment we’ve put in.”
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