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The hunt for teenage "rough diamonds" capable of shining in non-typical sports continues today.
Jersey Sport Foundation is looking for future champions to join its Development Programme, a new initiative aimed at identifying 12 to 16-year-olds with the potential to score medals at island, Commonwealth or even Olympic level.
And they're looking beyond the usual school favourites, with a particularly keen eye on those who can flourish in non-mainstream disciplines, such as martial arts, shooting or rowing.
An Olympic medallist and local athlete were last week in attendance at a screening 'Open Day' session in which children were assessed on their speed, agility, reactivity and strength to find out what non-mainstream sports they'd be best suited to.
With interest levels high, two more are set to be held: one today for children in Year 8 and 9 and one on 12 September for Year 10 and 11.
Pictured: The Open Day sessions are taking place at FB Fields.
After screening, children believed to have the most potential in performance sports will be selected to join the 'Talent 1 Programme' - a scheme aimed at polishing their minds and bodies for a future in elite level sport.
"Although this is not to be seen as a “fast track”, the opportunities presented on the programme to selected children will vastly accelerate their progression in sport," the Foundation explained.
Children on the programme might already have a sport they like or are good at, but will nonetheless have the opportunity to try new sports, meet potential sponsors, learn from current high performance athletes, and test themselves in ways they wouldn't ordinarily be able to.
Once the programme is finished, the young athletes will be guided towards sports where they have the potential to win big at the Island Games or the Commonwealth Games, as well as National Championships, and even European or World ones.
Pictured: Athletes Jade Lally and Zane Duquemin think the programme could be a great benefit for young athletes.
Local athlete Zane Duquemin attended one of the first screening days. He was there with Olympic medallist Jade Lally to answer budding athletes' questions about performance sports. He told Express: "I think a programme like this is a very useful concept. For me, being from Jersey, we never really had a pathway to go from grassroots sports all the way to the top. I think this programme can actually identify some talented kids and then there is a pathway for them to develop."
Ms Lally said that one of the strengths of the programme is the focus it gives to a range of “non-mainstream” sports. Those include coastal rowing, combat sports (boxing, jiu-jitsu, judo and MMA), target sports (shooting and archery), swimming, to name only a few. The athlete, who represented Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Olympics, said: "It gives a bigger chance for people to either develop in their sport or get exposed to something they might not have thought of before. It's something different, it's an exciting concept. It's not something normal like football, it's a wide variety of stuff so it's good for them."
The next sessions of the talent screening are open to any child with good athletic skills and the desire to become a performance athlete, John Scriven, Head of Services at Jersey Sport Foundation, said.
"This is about looking for the future performance athlete. We are hoping there are a few rough diamonds that with a bit of work will be shown to be really outstanding athletes."
Today's 'Open Day' session, and the next one, will take place between 16:00 and 18:00 at the Geoff Reed Table Tennis Centre at FB Fields.
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