Portadown Amateur Swimming Club is one of twenty-five successful clubs throughout Ireland to receive a major cash boost under the 2009 Texaco Sportstars Bursaries scheme. 

Having grown from a position two years ago when it had six coaches, the club now has 23 coaches and 160 members. To support this new structure, the club needs to hire more pool time at the Cascades Leisure Complex from Craigavon Borough Council. Their bursary amounting to £3,500 will assist in this and in providing extra training for coaches. 

Now in its third year, the Texaco Sportstars Bursaries scheme is open to sports clubs of all kind. It was launched in 2007 as part of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Texaco Sportstars Awards.
 
Over EUR120,000 has been allocated to the scheme from which a total of twenty-five sports clubs benefit - twenty from the Republic of Ireland and five from Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland, bursaries are distributed in amounts of EUR5,000 each and in Northern Ireland in amounts of £3,500 each.
 
A record 582 sports clubs submitted applications representing clubs from all of the 32 counties - a 38% increase on last year. The largest number of these came from clubs in Dublin City and County (118). Other leading counties were Cork (73), Antrim (51), Meath (30) and Galway (26). Of the total, 16% of applications came from clubs in Northern Ireland with all of the six counties represented.
 
Some 46 sporting disciplines were represented amongst the applications received. Soccer clubs made up the largest number (219) followed by GAA (75), basketball (35), swimming (30), rugby (29), athletics (25), cycling and hockey (15 each) and special needs (14 each). Of the remainder, American football, karting, tug of war, kickboxing, ice hockey, diving and canoeing were amongst the minority sports represented.

 Photo by Rick Hewitt, courtsey of Portadown Times