MORE young people in West Devon are to benefit from the sporting legacy after Sport England announced an extra £24 million to expand and extend its successful Sportivate programme.

The National Lottery funding means Sportivate can continue helping 14- to 25-year-olds to get involved in sports from judo and tennis to wakeboarding and parkour until 2017.

The initiative is run in Devon by County Sport Partnership, Active Devon. New figures shows that 3521 teenagers and young adults in the county have already benefitted from free or discounted six-to-eight week sports coaching courses through Sportivate. Of these, 3097 have successfully completed their course, missing no more than one session.

Sportivate lead at Active Devon, Karen Jones said 'We welcome news regarding extra funding for the programme as it has been such a success across the County. Organisations who have worked with us so far have benefitted from funding to support facility hire and coach education together with incentives to help the young people continue participating once the initial course has finished.'