January 31 - Australian rugby sevens head coach Michael O'Connor has claimed that the lucrative new sponsorship deal between his team and Qantas will help the country be serious medal contenders in the sport at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced back in 2009 that the sport would appear on the Olympic programme at Rio 2016 in a move that has led to many countries setting up full-time programmes in the hunt for Olympic gold.

The semi-professional Australian rugby sevens team has historically relied largely on modest Government and Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) funding, while the sport has acted as a pathway programme for individuals to move on to Super Rugby, the largest and professional rugby union competition in the Southern Hemisphere, or the National Rugby League (NRL), the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia.

But O'Connor, a former rugby league and union player who represented Australia in both, feels that the new Qantas sponsorship deal will mark a change in the system to stop talented young rugby sevens players moving on to play for Super Rugby or the NRL team as the extra money will allow him to sign young athletes to long-term deals.

"If we are to become a serious medal contender for the Olympics in 2016, we have to try and hold on to players and be able to compete with what they'd get if they went and played Super XV," said the 51-year-old from New South Wales.

"This sponsorship is a great help.

"We are very much dependent on young kids coming through and we have developed a lot over the last few years, but ultimately if they're good, they get picked up by Super sides."

The sponsorship deal is the latest partnership signed by Qantas this month after the Australian airline became the title sponsor of the Australian Athletics Tour, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Challenge accredited Melbourne Track Classic and the official airline for Athletics Australia.

By Tom Degun

Source: www.insidethegames.biz