Two Gunnedah swimmers and one Gunnedah netballer were among 24 young athletes in the Parkes electorate to receive financial assistance for their sporting endeavours.

Alexis Whitton, Molly Ramien and Sarah McInerney were part of the group which included athletes from Broken Hill, Condobolin, Coonabarabran, Dubbo, Gilgandra, Gongolgon, Gunnedah, Narrabri, Narromine, Ungarie, Walgett and Warialda.

The 24 athletes received up to $750 to assist with costs associated with participating in state, national and international sporting championships, under the Local Sporting Champions program which is administered by the Australian Sports Commission.

Costs can include travel, accommodation, uniforms and sporting equipment.

Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton, congratulated the athletes.

“We have a great deal of sporting talent here in the Parkes electorate, however many of our young sportspeople who compete at a representative level have to travel large distances to participate which can be very costly,” he said.

“This program greatly assists families to ensure their children can continue competing in the sport they love without worrying about the financial burden.”

Alexis and Molly competed at the School Sport Australia Games Swimming Championships in the Gold Coast suburb of Southport during August.

Alexis swam for St Mary’s College (Gunnedah) and was in the New South Wales (NSW) team, while Molly swam for St Peters Lutheran College (Brisbane) and was in the Queensland team.

These two Gunnedah swimmers also competed in last year’s School Sport Australia Games Swimming Championships, held in Sydney.

Swimming Gunnedah president Louise Whitton expressed her appreciation of the financial support, and said it was a great opportunity for country kids to compete at national level.

Louise said it was “a great experience” for the swimmers while the event was “very professionally run”.

Sarah took part in this year’s NSW junior netball state titles in the Sydney suburb of Narellan, in only her second year of playing netball.

Sarah was a part of the 13s rep team last year before stepping up to the 14s rep team this year, with the latter team representing Gunnedah at the junior state titles in July.

The 14s team also won its division at the Tamworth all age carnival in August.

Gunnedah netball president Lisa Steele said Sarah was an amazing defender while she was constantly improving her skills.

Sarah McInerney (back row second from right) was among a group of athletes to receive financial assistance for sporting endeavours.

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