The 29-year-old triathlete says the Island has the facilities and could be marketed as a top training destination.
And he said that ‘with a few tweaks’, Jersey could excel as a sporting venue.
Read a full interview with Dan Halksworth here
Mr Halksworth, who is also an Iron Man UK champion, said that Fort Regent could again become ‘an amazing place’ for sportsmen and women and that it could house a 50-metre Olympic swimming pool which could be used for national competitions.
‘In Jersey we’ve got the facilities, we’ve had the weather this week and we’re not far from the UK,’ he said.
‘I think tourism should be marketing the Island as a great place for sports teams to train.
‘Teams should be coming here to use our facilities as training camps – why not use what we have?
‘If we had a few tweaks to our facilities and our sporting structure, I think we could really excel.
‘Fort Regent could still be an amazing place. There’s a lot of wasted space there and it’s such a pity.
‘The swimming pool there is rotting away and there’s space to build a 50-metre pool.
‘Think about the national competitions we could hold and the training camps that could provide a major income for the Island.’
However, the sportsman said that Jersey athletes often found it hard to secure funding to help them leave the Island to compete at different levels.
In order to travel to national triathlon competitions, cycling contests and Iron Man events, the former Victoria College student has to pay his own way and find help from private sponsors.
‘I think there is good States funding and support for some sports,’ he added, ‘but for other sports that we are doing well in, and getting Island Games medals in, there isn’t really any help at all.
‘It seems the States would rather spend money on other things.
‘I think that sport has always been the first to go when it comes to government cuts, and that’s a shame because we have shown that we can do so well.’
