OLYMPIC gold medallist Zac Purchase, the most successful British lightweight rower of all time, launched a new business lunch club yesterday.

And two rising sports stars from the county were also given a huge boost when they were presented with grants.

The SportsAid Lunch Club, which will meet twice a year, has been established by the Suffolk SportsAid Foundation in association with Bury St Edmunds businesses Lovewell Blake, Abbeycroft Leisure, IRS Risk Management and Insurance, Sicon, Suffolk Golf and Spa Hotel and Mark Day, the seniors’ captain at the club.

It is specifically aimed at raising funding to support up and coming sportsmen and women from the county.

The launch was held at the golf and spa complex, at Fornham St Genevieve, and was also attended by local elite athletes, Beijing bronze medalist Sharon Hunt, Beijing Paralympian Brian Alldis and World Decaman champion Simon Bourne.

During the lunch, funds were handed over to Ben Mead, a basketball player from Stowmarket, who has represented England at under-15, 16 and 18 level and who helped England win a bronze medal at the U18 Men’s European Championship in Bosnia, last August; and windsurfer Matthew Barton, a pupil at King Edward VI School, in Bury, who is ranked second in GB at under-19 level and 20th in Europe.

There was also a raffle and a fundraising auction which included a Jonathan Tiernan-Locke-signed and framed Tour of Britain yellow jersey, a pair of tickets for an England World Cup qualification match and a framed boxing glove signed by Suffolk’s London Olympic boxing medalist, and now professional boxer, Anthony Ogogo.