Hartley beats Le Clos as sports bosses dish out millions

Canoeist Bridgitte Hartley received the most funding from the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee during the year ending March 31 2014.

The 2012 Olympic bronze medallist received R538620 from Sascoc's Operation Excellence programme, which spent R12.6-million on more than 80 Olympic and Paralympic athletes across 16 codes.

Swimming star Chad le Clos got R373422, triathlete Richard Murray R359801 and javelin thrower Sunette Viljoen R300335, according to the Sascoc annual report released at its AGM on Saturday.

All four delivered on their Sascoc mandate, with Hartley getting to the podium at the world championships and Le Clos, Murray and Viljoen bagging medals at the Commonwealth Games.

Olympic sports received a combined R8.39-million, with rowing getting the biggest share - R2.16-million - slightly less than the R2.19-million annual salary paid to Sascoc chief executive Tubby Reddy as well as the R2.4-million in allowances paid to board members.

Sascoc's grants to rowing included R1.7-million for three crews, two of which won medals at their recent world championships.

Athletics got R1.73-million, swimming R1.16-million, cycling R912687, canoeing R664407, triathlon R430529, badminton R417538, sailing R264620, judo R197813 and boxing R145781. The cheapest medallist was US-based swimmer Sebastien Rousseau, who got R18537 but won four bronzes in Scotland- a return of R4634 per gong.

Sascoc gave R4.21-million to Paralympic sports.

Swimmer Kevin Paul received R264718, placing him ahead of sprinter Hilton Langenhoven (R234981), swimmer Charl Bouwer (R224940) and athlete Ndodomzi Ntutu (R217458).