Since it was formed nine years ago, the Three Counties Air Target Club in Carmarthen has been making significant headway in both the disability and able bodied competitions and is already eyeing up the Commonwealth Games next year.

The club, renowned as a hotbed for talented shooters, has three promising athletes - each with an eye on the Games in Delhi in 2010.

Danielle Jones, 18, from Llanllwni, has been at the club since she was 10-years-old and has already represented Wales at the Commonwealth Youth Games.

Coach John Kelman explains, "We have numerous talented individuals here at the club and Danielle is one of those exciting prospects. She has already earned the qualifying score needed to go through to selection for the Commonwealths next year and can now only wait to see if she will be selected."

Jones receives a helping hand from the Sports Council for Wales’ Talent Support scheme which has been set up to provide financial support to promising sportsmen and women to help with the cost of competition, training, equipment and travel.

The other two Commonwealth Games hopefuls are Rachel Gravelle, 21, from Trimsaran who is the Welsh, Scottish and British Junior Champion and Nicola Wilson from Cwmtwll who won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Shooting Federation competition last year.

Over the last four years, the club has received two Community Chest grants - the National Lottery grant managed by the Sports Council for Wales which is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year. Totalling £1,750, it has helped fund the club’s development and necessary equipment.

The club has also been rewarded for its efforts at the Carmarthenshire Sports Awards, winning the coach and disabled sportsman of the year as well as taking the runner-up title for young sportswoman – a huge achievement by one club.

The disabled sportsman went to Eirian Griffiths, 50, from Meidrim. Kelman adds, "Eirian, or ‘footsy’ as we call him, can’t walk or talk, has permanent head movements and does not have control of his right arm. I adapted and constructed a device which allows him to operate the equipment by using his feet, hence the nickname, and he is an inspiration to everyone here at the club."

If you have an idea that could get more people, more active more often – you may even be in line for a cash grant from the Sports Council for Wales.

Projects up and down the country have been reaping the rewards of the Community Chest scheme since 1999.

As a result of the popularity and undoubted success of the scheme, the Sports Council for Wales is raising the level of grant. Organisations keen to develop sport & physical activity in Wales can now receive up to £1000 for a qualifying project over a 12 month period.

The scope of the scheme has also been widened. Grants have traditionally been awarded to sports clubs and sporting bodies. Now most organisations seeking to develop physical activity and sporting projects will be eligible for an award.

The Community Chest has recently been infiltrating additional areas of work such as the voluntary sector (e.g. Voluntary Youth Clubs, Women’s Institute) and the workplace, as well as continuing to support projects in the health and education arenas. So while funding the local football club might get the younger members of the community moving, backing a walking group will encourage more adults to get active.

Chair of the Sports Council for Wales, Philip Carling, said:

"Community Chest has been and continues to be a huge success and is very popular throughout Carmarthenshire. The increase in funding and the greater scope of the scheme will increase its effectiveness.

"Panels based in each of the 22 local authorities in Wales hold the purse strings and have delegated authority to award grants to worthwhile projects. We want to hear of bright ideas and projects that will get more people in Carmarthenshire more active, more often."