BADMINTON - SEVENTEEN-year-old Somerset badminton player Chris Coles is among 16 talented young athletes being tipped by Sport England and SportsAid to make their mark at the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

SEVENTEEN-year-old Somerset badminton player Chris Coles is among 16 talented young athletes being tipped by Sport England and SportsAid to make their mark at the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The '16 for 2016' are all supported by SportsAid, a charity which gives financial assistance to talented youngsters aged 12 to 18, to help them meet the costs of pursuing their sporting dreams.

The rising stars were named as Sport England announced that it would be investing over half a million pounds of Government funding in SportsAid over the next two years.

Chris, from Clevedon is the Great Britain Under-17 No 1 in singles and current national champion in men's and mixed doubles.

He said: "I am delighted at being recognised by SportsAid as one of 16 athletes to progress to the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro. It has always been my long-term goal to compete in an Olympic Games and to be considered as a potential contender by SportsAid and by Badminton England makes all the hard training worthwhile. I am really very excited about the future."

Nikki Tarrant, Elite Player Supervisor at Badminton England, said: "Chris is currently in the top three doubles and mixed pairs in his age group in Europe, in addition to being a top five player at singles. He has a high level of ability on all disciplines of the game and demonstrates these when he plays, power and physical ability linked to his natural control and on court vision. His continued improvement could see him representing England and GB at senior level in the next few years.