WITH the closure this month of ACTSPORT, we need to consider how the tradition of the Sports Star of the Year and the Hall of Fame can remain great events in the ACT calendar.

It’s a long way from 1983, when ACTSPORT started as an umbrella organisation.

The only semblance of professional sport came in the form of the Raiders, the Cannons and soccer’s Canberra City Arrows; the Capitals were still a year away and the Brumbies weren’t even a vision.

ACTSPORT, led by Harry Marr and Jim Roberts, filled a vital role in guiding kitchen-table sporting organisations through the emerging minefield of insurances, liability and other requirements that were becoming part and parcel of sport in Australia.

To a certain extent ACTSPORT became a victim of its own success because as sporting organisations became more professional they became increasingly less reliant on the services of ACTSPORT.

As such, the organisation struggled to find its identity and purpose and, to many, the demise of ACTSPORT came as no real surprise. It will now be up to the ACT government to ensure that the smaller sporting organisations that were reliant on ACTSPORT’s services don’t go under.

WHILE on the subject of great sporting teams and professionalism it is hard to go past the performance of the Gungahlin United men’s soccer team.

In its first year and under the presidency of Ricardo Alberto and a strong committee, the team has overcome pre-season issues to qualify in the final 32 of the FFA Cup, as the leading Canberra side in the knockout tournament.

With off-field issues resolved, the results have followed. Gungahlin United provides a positive lesson to all sporting clubs.

WITH the Civic Olympic diving pool scheduled to be reopened this summer, the focus for the ACT government is to establish a permanent diving facility in Canberra.

The Civic Olympic Pool appears to be on borrowed time with the new Indoor Sports Stadium earmarked for the site.

But where to put a diving facility? There are two options – the new pool at Molonglo or the aquatic centre to be established by the lake.

It’s to be hoped the next diving facility will be indoors because at the moment our best divers spend plenty of time on the Hume Highway during winter. The call is for more diving and less driving.

SHANNON Rollason, the former AIS head coach who guided Jodie Henry to Olympic gold, has attracted one of Australia’s leading 50-metre freestyle swimmers to his program at the Gungahlin Pool.

Matthew Abood has confirmed that he will be moving from Sydney to Canberra to train under Rollason in the lead-up to the Rio Olympics.

In a major boost to Canberra swimming, Abood says he is keen to participate in local events and there is also speculation that a number of big-name overseas swimmers are also looking at utilising Rollason’s experience. The involvement of these high-performing swimmers should influence our locals to bigger and better things.