Oskan seeks sponsor for Olympic dream
Sportsdesk • Published 4 Aug 2011 13:00
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Shelayna Oskan
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GIFTED young athlete Shelayna Oskan is appealing to businesses within the community to help sponsor her Olympic dream.
Oskan is already a national champion and represented England at international level but is targeting financial support towards her training in order to qualify for Team Great Britain (GB) at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The 21-year-old has successfully represented Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow Athletics Club (WSEH AC), and competed for Brunel University where she graduated with a degree in sports science.
A former Baylis Court School (Slough) pupil, Oskan is currently ranked third in the U23 400m division and recently finished third at the Aviva World Trials & UK Championships in Birmingham, and runner-up in the England Senior Championships at Bedford, setting a new personal best of 53.61 seconds in the process.
Oskan was ranked fifth at U23 level last year and second at U20 level in 2008 and 2009.
In October 2008 the Slough-based athlete travelled to Pune, India as a member of the England team at the Commonwealth Youth Games, as the U20 400m national champion, where she finished fifth.
She was also nominated for the 2008 female pupil of the year award at the annual Daily Telegraph/Norwich Union School Sports Matters Awards.
Speaking exclusively to The Observer Oskan said: "I am appealing for sponsorship to help financially support my training towards the Olympics".
Although training is my priority the need to earn money to cover my living costs makes achieving my training targets very difficult. Sponsorship would allow me to dedicate all my time to training and bring me closer to my olympic dream. I have improved my time this year by nearly a second and I am on target to achieve the Olympic qualifying time by next year.
"I used to run 800m and 400m but concentrate on 400m now. I am currently ranked third at under 23 level.
"I am training hard and set a new personal best of 53.6 seconds but if I want to get a place in the Great Britain Olympic squad I need to run a second quicker."
Oskan has only finished outside of the UK top three twice this season, and the idea for the appeal came from her mother who regularly saw her daughter in The Observer's athletics reports.
She continued: "The idea for the appeal was my mum's because she sees me in the paper quite a lot in the WSEH results and thought it would be a good way of helping me to fund my training.
"I am working really hard to achieve a time to qualify for the Olympics and the benefit of funding makes it a lot easier."
The 400-metre athlete currently combines her training with work but finds the mix stressful, and aims to fully focus on qualifying for the 2012 GB team.
Commenting on the combination of training and work she added: "It is quite difficult earning money while training every day and support from a sponsor would enable me to be more focused on my training."
Oskan is confident that if she gains the right support she will achieve a place in the Great Britain Olympic team and invites businesses operating in Slough to be associated with her success.
If anyone is interested in sponsoring Shelayna's bid to make Team GB please e-mail her at oskanshelayna@yahoo.co.uk or the Observer at observersport@berksmedia.co.uk.
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