England Handball aim to continue growth with £1.415m funding boost

After being funded by UK Sport for the period until the London 2012 Olympics, the sport saw its support significantly reduced in the aftermath of the Games.

But with the help of funding from Sport England the sport has continued to grow in the country, and this extra cash – more than £260,000 above what they received in the last four years – will, in part, go towards supporting England Handball's talent programme.

The organisation's CEO, David Meli, said: "Handball is in a good place and this funding will ensure the sport can continue to develop at the pace of the last four years.

"A key success area for us has been the education sector. The number of teams entering our National Schools competition has increased from 25 in 2009-10 to 1,400 in 2016-17.

"The British University Championships has grown from 24 teams in 2012 to 70 registered for this season.

"We have also seen fantastic growth in our under-18 competition in which, like our Under-16 competition, the quality gets better year-on-year.

"The club system is flourishing, while we have also developed an adapted version of the game called Try Handball.

"Our talent pathway is already bearing fruit, an example being Josh Da Silva who has joined top-division Portuguese club AC Fafe.

"There is a real talented generation coming through and the funding allocated for this area is very welcome."

Sportsbeat 2017