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Wilf Brogan and Barry Warner, Mayor of Salford receive a cheque from Sport England

The skills sessions will be offered in the area over the next 12 months as part of the new 'into performance' sports programme Active Sports.

The five-year programme, which kicked off on Saturday, September 23, aims to encourage more young people into quality coaching and competition.

Greater Manchester will benefit from ?200,000 from the Sport England lottery fund over the next year to pay for the programme to help Great Britain find new international sports stars.

Greater Manchester Sports Partnership chair councillor Wilf Brogan was pleased to see the 10 Greater Manchester authorities and sports organisations working together to improve sport in our community.

He said: "We are giving our young people the start they need to be the best they can be."

Over the next two years Greater Manchester will increase the number of sports in the programme to include basketball, rugby, cricket, tennis, swimming and athletics.

The programme is designed to offer coaching programmes at a local level and ease entry into the World Class programme which supports many of those in the Great Britain team taking part in the Sydney Olympics.

Steve De Wint, development manager for the Greater Manchester Sports Partnership, was confident the programme would produce some world beaters.

He said: "With the support of so many different organisations, young people now have greater opportunity to excel in sport than ever before.
Whatever we win in Sydney this year can only be increased in the years to come."