A Cumbria lawn bowls coach has hailed the impact of the Team England Futures programme to identify and develop the next generation of elite athletes at the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Nicola Bowe, 51, from Wigton, was selected to be part of the Team England Futures programme at the Games in Glasgow, experiencing first-hand who and what drives the performances of superstar athletes like Duncan Scott, Adam Ramsay-Peaty and Josh Kerr. The Team England Futures, delivered by SportsAid in partnership with Commonwealth Games England and Sport England, is designed to support development, giving coaches insight into the demands and opportunities of competing at the highest level of sport, and helping to prepare them for success in the future with Team England, Team GB, and ParalympicsGB. The Team England Futures Programme is designed to support the jump between single sport events to multisport Games – and prepare Bowe to develop the next generation of lawn bowlers. Tim Lawler MBE, chief executive officer at SportsAid said: “By blending theory with immersion into high-performance multisport environments, the programme transforms athletes and coaches from sport-specific specialists into Games-literate members of Team England.