KEY POINTS:
Near enough is good enough as the New Zealand men's hockey team learned yesterday.
Threatened with having their generous performance enhancement grants (PEGS) cut after coming up short at the June-July Champions Challenge tournament in Belgium, the national body has succeeded in convincing funding agency Sparc their players deserve on-going support.
"We pointed out that the men fell only at the very last hurdle when they were beaten in golden-goal extra-time by Argentina in the final," said Hockey New Zealand chief executive Ramesh Patel. "It was the tournament we had pinpointed as their pinnacle event for the year but in failing to win we knew the funding was in danger.
"Thankfully Sparc agreed with us and has decided to continue funding our men, but with some conditions.
"The current PEGS are through to the end of September but Sparc has agreed that it will continue beyond that in the hope we can qualify for the Olympic Games. If the team beats Australia and Papua New Guinea at next week's Oceania qualifiers the funding will go through until Beijing and beyond.
"If the men miss out at the qualifiers, Sparc will continue to fund them through to the Olympic qualifying tournament we will host at North Harbour in February," said Patel. "If they win that, the funding will continue. If they don't qualify for the Olympics the grants will end then."
Sparc allocates $275,000 for distribution as grants. Depending on the number of players in the squad and the number of tournaments they play, the players can expect $11,000-$12,000 a year.
"We are very grateful for Sparc's support in this manner," said Patel. "These grants will be made under the provision of their discretionary payments."
The grants to individuals are in addition to the funding the national body receives from the Government agency.
While not one of Sparc's "targeted sports" - the elite sports who receive the lion's share of their funding - hockey, as one of the many "contestable sports", still receives around $750,000 - down from $1 million - for their high-performance programme.
The women's team has fallen off the PEGS wagon after their dismal effort at June's Champions Challenge in Azerbaijan and will probably need a top-eight finish at the Olympics to be back on that merry-go-round.
They have what should be a relatively easy path to Beijing. If they finish first or second in their Oceania qualifier they will win through.
