Sport England announced today that the School Games were due to receive an additional investment of £10 million from key sponsor Sainsbury’s.

The funds will go towards supporting the new School Games Competition over the next four years up to 2015 and come in tandem with extra pledges from the Department of Health and Sport England which take the investment total up to £32 million.

£14 million will come from the Department of Health while a further £8 million from Sport England will extend the funding from two years to four years while sponsorship from Adidas means that there will be sports kit provided for the estimated 1,600 young competitors.

The packages ensure that the Olympic and Paralympic sporting legacies are continued after 2012 as promised by the Government when London won the rights to host the Games this summer.

With table tennis as one of the key School Games sports it is a great boost for our young players across the country which the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt acknowledged.

Mr Hunt said: “We are absolutely determined to leave a real and lasting legacy for young people from London’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the Sainsbury’s School Games will help do just that.”

He added: “The fantastic funding package announced today from Sainsbury’s, Adidas and the Department of Health, shows the commitment to completely transform sport in schools. I want to thank Sainsbury’s and Adidas for their huge generosity in helping to secure the future of the School games beyond 2012.”

This additional investment comes on top of the £35.5 million of National Lottery funding that is already being invested in the School Games which includes £4 million for hosting the 2012 School Games finals at the Olympic Park in May.

Read the report from finals day at the last UK School Games here.