TOP young triathlete Flora Duffy and Star sailors Peter Bromby and crewmate Billy McNiven were awarded grants by the International Olympic Committee yesterday while CAC bronze medal squash players were handed $1,000 from Government to further their sporting careers.

The IOC have given a helping hand through their Olympic Solidarity Programme to Duffy and the Bromby/McNiven team in their efforts to qualify for the 2008 Olympics in China.

John Hoskins (pictured), head of the Bermuda Olympic Association, said the funds would be crucial for the athletes to attend overseas competitions to get ready for Beijing.

Bromby is a veteran of the Olympics and will be trying to compete in his fourth Games in 2008 with new crewmember McNiven while Duffy is a rising star in the triathlon world having placed eighth earlier this year at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.

Next week Duffy, along with three others from Bermuda, flies off to Switzerland to compete in the World Triathlon Championships.

She said yesterday: "These funds from the Olympic Solidarity Programme will be very helpful to go abroad to compete and train. I am very happy."

Duffy also recently won the Junior London Triathlon.

Squash players Nick Kyme, James Stout, Michael Shrubb and Mel Caines were handed a $1,000 cheque from Government after they claimed the bronze at the CAC Games in Cartagena, Colombia earlier this summer.