Badminton and other dropped sports to begin battle for Tokyo 2020 funding
By Andy Charles
Last Updated: 05/02/17 1:51pm
Badminton England is ready to state its case this week as a number of sports battle to secure funding for the next Olympic cycle.
UK Sport dropped badminton, archery, fencing, goalball, table tennis, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby from the funding programme for the four years through to Tokyo 2020.
Each of the affected sports has appealed against the decision and those appeals will be heard on Monday and Tuesday.
Badminton's case is expected to be one of the strongest as they did come back from Rio 2016 with a medal, Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge securing a bronze in the men's doubles competition.
They had already received a funding cut from £7.4m to £5.9m for the four years after London 2012, when badminton provided no medals.
Adrian Christy, chief executive of Badminton England, said: "There is one fundamental focus, to demonstrate we have got medal-winning potential for Tokyo.
"With the way UK Sport operate it is all about medals and on-court success, and we have already proved we can win medals.
"Chris and Gabby (Adcock), and Marcus and Chris have already shown they can deliver at the very highest level. Three of them will be at their peak age when we go to Tokyo.
"There is no reason these players can't go on and deliver in Tokyo and we think we have the evidence to prove that.
"The support we have had has been phenomenal. We have just got to harness all of that and hope the noise is loud enough to change minds."
This week's hearings are just the first stage of the appeal process - if the sports make a case the funding decision will be referred back to the UK Sport management team.
Further appeals, in the case of rejection, would have to be taken to Sport Resolutions UK, the independent dispute resolution service for sport in the United Kingdom.
