ISDE effort
By TMX Archives on 12th Jan 04
FOLLOWING LAST year's decision by the ACU not to send a senior trophy team to the ISDE in Brazil, top level talks at Rugby have already been held to ensure a presence at the '04 event in Poland.While the '03 withdrawal was blamed FOLLOWING LAST year's decision by the ACU not to send a senior trophy team to the ISDE in Brazil, top level talks at Rugby have already been held to ensure a presence at the '04 event in Poland.While the '03 withdrawal was blamed on selection problems, the attendance of Team GB at the Polish event will boil down to money.British team manager Euan Syme told the meeting - attended by ACU top brass including chief executive Neil Hellings, chairman Jim Parker and trials and enduro committee chairman John Collins - that a minimum budget of 24K was needed to send senior and junior trophy teams.The ACU have agreed to finance the effort to the tune of 20K - leaving a shortfall of 4K to be raised - but made it clear that no extra funds will be released if this extra money is not raised by the first week in June.If this happens then the riders will be asked to come up with the cash before a decision to drop a team will be considered.The meeting also considered the selection criteria and decided that, after the problems in '03, selected riders would be asked to provide written confirmation that they would compete."We have now built up a team of people who will be investing their time and effort into making sure the British team will be in Poland for 2004," says John Collins. "Everyone at the meeting contributed to a way forward and I thank all for attending and putting forward ideas."