AMBITIOUS plans to bring angling back into the Olympic fold have been welcomed.

The sport is being touted for an Olympic berth after the International Confederation of Sport Fishing revealed it has submitted plans for it to become a recognised event, writes Macauley Daley.

In 1900, angling took place at the Paris Olympics - but it wasn’t recognised as an official event. Freshwater, sea, fly and sport fishing would all be competed for at an Olympic level if the plans are approved by the International Olympic Committee.

Fabulous Paul Sear, club secretary for Eastleigh & District Angling Club, believes Olympic recognition would do wonders for the sport.

“It would be great and from the freshwater side it would be fabulous,” he said.

“We’ve lost hundreds of the junior anglers that we used to have from a very healthy network around the Hampshire area.

“We’ve lost that age group due to IPads and things like that.

“I do a lot of tae-kwon-do and every time the Olympics is on we get a huge amount of interest, we bring a lot of new faces in and get a lot of young people that have never even thought about it, so it will certainly highlight fishing.”

Andy Palmer, match secretary for Test Valley & Southampton Piscatorial Society, is also in favour.

“I’d be wholeheartedly in support of it,” he said.

“The thing about fishing is that it looks very simple, but at international level, match fishing is very complex, it’s a very skilful sport.

“To the casual observer it probably looks quite uninteresting but for participants it’s highly skilful and it’s a sport that attracts all ages.

“With fishing being the biggest participant sport in the country, it would be a real boost for angling to see really highly skilled individuals plying their trade at an Olympic level.

“It would be really good for the sport.’ However, not everyone involved in angling is keen on the idea.

John Flower, secretary at Alfresford Sea Angling Club, remarked: “Linking angling to the Olympics is a daft idea.

“More than six million people in the UK fish, or have fished making it the UK’s largest participant sport, but in the main it is a solitary male sport and not a team activity.

“Fishing programmes on TV are very much viewed by a minority and do not feature on prime time TV.

“None of these features make sense for any kind of Olympic spectacle.”

What do you think? Email echosport@dailyecho.co.uk