Four members of South Durham Gym Club - Leonni Jennison, Rachel Collinson and Hayley Robson - were on hand to celebrate the announcement of a cash boost for their Spennymoor-based club.

The £16,000, which has been provided by Durham based recruitment consultants Corepeople and matched by Sportsmatch, will fund a full time coach whose job will be to carry out outreach work in the community to identify potential elite gymnastics at an early stage by working in schools and community clubs and to stimulate grass roots interest in gymnastics and working with under 12 junior development in the club.

South Durham Gym Club has an excellent reputation for recognising and developing talent with a hugely enthusiastic membership and an elite squad whose gymnasts include members of Great Britain's European Gymnastics Squad. The club is lead by Rachael Wright and Nicola Preston together with a team of dedicated coaches.

They are also keen to open up opportunities in gymnastics to as many youngsters as possible through the club.

Wright, head coach said, "We are delighted to have received this sponsorship from Corepeople and Sportsmatch. There is huge talent in this area and with this cash boost, which is the first of its kind for the club, we can make major steps to even greater success at the club as well as stimulating grass roots interest in gymnastics."

Ian Storer, director of Corepeople said: "I have been enormously impressed by the worked carried out by the club and we are delighted to have been able to help. As a company we look for the best staff on a temporary or permanent basis for our clients and we know the importance of excellence in every area of our activity. With this sponsorship we will be able to encourage young people to achieve their potential."

Robin Hodkinson, scheme manager, Sportsmatch said: "Sportsmatch awards encourage companies to sponsor grassroots sport by matching their investment on a pound for pound basis. The results are excellent schemes such as the Corepeople and South Durham Gymnastics Club project that will deliver high quality coaching to hundreds of young people giving them great opportunities to develop their interests and skills."

Corepeople, who are based in Durham are one of the region's specialists in temporary and permanent recruitment.

Sportsmatch is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport through Sport England. In 11 years it has generated £80 million for 74 sports and encouraged 4,500 companies to become sport sponsors.