The Irish Sailing Association has agreed a four year sponsorship deal around the Olympic Sailing team and Irish oil and gas exploration and production company Providence Resources.
The deal is a major boost to the team as they prepare for the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. It follows a six month deal put in place last year ahead of the London 2012 games and will provide significant additional resources to enable a competitive tilt at medals on the water.
The Irish sailing team had their most successful Olympics for thirty years in 2012 with 4th, 10th and 14th place finishes, headed by the near miss for a podium by Annalise Murphy.
“Providence Resources were so proud of the Irish sailing team at the Games in 2012 and we know they can achieve so much more, said CEO Tony O’Reilly speaking at the launch. “We want to provide the team with the support to reach their goals in 2016”.
The Irish sailing team will be named Providence Team IRL for the four year period and joint branding will be rolled out over the coming weeks.
The benefits of the multi year deal and the confidence it breeds can be measured in the fact that members of the Irish team were the sixth country to officially visit the 2016 venue and others will be travelling out for an initial acclimatisation in the next week.
“We have had great support from the Irish Sports Council and this commercial partnership raises the level at which we can compete,” added ISA Performance Director James O’Callaghan. “We are an island nation with a proven ability to mix with the best in international racing.”
“The investment going in to the building of a stronger squad with more depth, and to enabling the incremental gains at the top level will be worthwhile and the whole team is already focused on strong competition at home this year in a wide variety of major events, but also on where we will be in three years time.”
The likely stars as things stand now include Annalise Murphy in the Laser Radial class, Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern in the 49’er and James Espey in Laser, as well as John Twomey who is preparing for his 11th Paralympic Games in the Sonar Class and Ian Costello.
The Providence deal extends across Olympic and Paralympic sailing and gear and boats will be rebranded as Providence Team IRL over the coming weeks.
The real value lies in the multi year approach, not possible under current Government funding cycles through the Sports Council but the norm within professionally managed programmes across major sports and in other countries.
It breeds the confidence to be more daring in programmes and ultimately more successful in competition.
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Sailing Secures Rio Sponsorship
