Siblings Celebrate Olympic Sized Grant
Two brothers from Islington are celebrating an early Christmas present after landing Sport Islington’s largest funding grant.
Elliot and Kai Innocent from Angel Islington have bagged £2,000 to help cover the costs of training and competing in their respective sports of Trampolining and Football.
The money comes jointly from SportIslington – a voluntary organisation funded by Islington Council and the Joanna Brown Trust – a registered charity set up in memory of a sports enthusiast from Highbury who tragically died three years ago.
Elliott (17), a nationally ranked trampolinist and Kai (11) a trainee with QPR beat off stiff competition to win the annual ‘Joanna Brown award for sporting excellence’.
After receiving the grant, seventeen-year-old Elliott said; ‘This grant will really help me in 2012, I will be able to enter more competitions and push for the British Team’. Elliott’s brother Kai, said; ‘this funding will help my mum and dad pay for my travelling costs and all of my kit costs’.
Richard Brown of the Joanna Brown Trust, explained why the joint grant with Sport Islington was so important; ‘It is great to be supporting Elliott & Kai. The aim of the joint grant is to provide talented young athletes with support and I know Jo would be in full agreement with the choice to fund Elliott and Kai. The relationship our trust has built with Sport Islington is fantastic and with their help we can continue to support more Islington athletes in the future’.
The Joanna Brown Trust have shown their commitment to supporting Islington athletes by continuing to independently fund Aasha Kimpton and George Durden, who received the award for sporting excellence in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Declan Hamblin, Chairman of SportIslington, said “Combining forces with the Joanna Brown Trust enables both organisations to foster and develop a young talent for a whole year – it’s a great partnership that really helps an Islington resident reach their potential”
The Joanna Brown Trust was established in memory of 30-year-old Joanna Brown, a talented sports enthusiast who died in a trekking accident inSiberiain August 2008.
