Badminton, archery, fencing, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby not funded for Tokyo Olympics
By Andy Charles
Last Updated: 09/12/16 4:36pm
Five sports, including badminton, will not receive any funding for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics cycle, UK Sport has confirmed.
Archery, fencing and weightlifting have also been left off the 2020 funding list, along with the Paralympic sport of wheelchair rugby, with the total funds expected to reach £345m.
Other sports have also suffered funding hits, with cycling the hardest hit as it loses more than £4m over the four-year cycle which takes UK Sport up to the Tokyo Games.
Of the sports which will receive no funding, only badminton produced a medal at the Rio Games, where Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge claimed a bronze medal in the men's double.
Badminton had its funding cut from £7.4m to £5.9m after London 2012, after no players managed the minimum fourth to eighth-placed finish which had been targeted.
Badminton England chief executive Adrian Christy said: "How can you return from the best Games for more than a decade, in a year where our players have demonstrated World Class performances and where we can demonstrate the journey to Tokyo is on track, only to have every penny of investment withdrawn.
"We are prepared to fight for the hopes and dreams that their talent deserves and will be making representation to UK Sport and appealing to Sport Resolutions (UK) in due course.
"Badminton is one of the nation's most participated sports - we are the sixth largest in weekly participation - and now those talented young players, Great Britain's future Olympians, must wonder about their future ambitions having seen support for the World Class programme removed."
Equestrian and canoeing also suffer funding losses of more than £1m but other sports receive hefty increases including swimming, hockey, gymnastics and shooting, whose funding rises from £3.95m to £7.02m.
There is, as yet, no confirmation for funding of sports which are coming into the Games, or returning, in Tokyo - baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing.
UK Sport CEO Liz Nicholl said: "With each of the sports affected we have a commitment to see their transition out of funding is supported.
"They have got medal potential, they have progressed as sports, but we cannot reach to funding them for Tokyo. Conversations are going on with those sports.
"We know what it takes to win and what it costs to win and believe these investments will deliver medal winning success to inspire the nation once again in Tokyo."
The news was greeted with disappointment from Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby chief executive David Pond, who said an appeal against the decision was possible.
He said: "This news is very disappointing and obviously not the news we wanted. We have a talented and ambitious young squad who are developing well and who came very close in Rio. The severing of all funding for the national programme unfortunately puts a question mark over the future of the GB team.
"I am also a little surprised as we were always only ever 'podium potential' funded and it is widely understood that it takes more than 4 years to get to a medal winning position. I think it took cycling 12 years to build the system which has now resulted in consistent podium success. It is disappointing that our progress towards this has now been put in jeopardy.
"We will obviously be looking at the appeals process to see if we feel we have any just reason to make a representation to UK Sport. We will also be working very closely with our partners and looking to see if we can attract further commercial sources of funding."
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