The "desperate" appeals from GB Badminton and six other sports for funding for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been rejected by UK Sport, which said that the sports "were unable to provide new evidence they had any chance of winning a medal" in '20, according to Sean Ingle of the London GUARDIAN. Archery, fencing, goal ball, table tennis, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby also had their claims for money for the next Olympic cycle rejected. GB Badminton said that it was "staggered" by the decision to "slash its funding" from £5.9M ($7.35M) in the four years running up to the Rio Olympics to zero. In a statement, the organization said, "Given the strength of evidence we were able to present to justify investment, we cannot believe UK Sport has concluded they should stand by their decision and award zero funding to our GB programme." GB Badminton is "particularly aggrieved" given Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge won a Bronze Medal in the men's doubles in Rio. It added, "We have players who are on track to win medals for the nation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and our belief in those players remains as great as it's ever been" (GUARDIAN, 2/20). REUTERS' Martyn Herman reported UK Sport's "ruthless approach," which has produced "record medal returns at the last two Olympics," was justified by CEO Liz Nicholl on Monday. Nicholl said in a statement, "It is uncompromisingly focused on excellence, relative merit and what it takes to pursue the ambition to win more medals and create more medallists in Tokyo to inspire the nation. The sports that made representations to our Board were unable to provide any critically compelling new evidence that changed our assessment of their medal potential for Tokyo." Only weightlifting received some "positive news" with its funding being returned after an original decision handed it to the English Institute of Sport, which manages the program (REUTERS, 2/20).
RUGBY CAMPAIGN FAILED: In London, Ben Rumsby reported the "failure of wheelchair rugby to overturn December's decision emerged earlier on Monday." The sport, also known as "Murderball," lost all of its £3M ($3.7M) "exchequer and National Lottery money." UK Athletics Chair Ed Warner and England rugby player Mike Brown "spearheaded" a campaign to overturn the "perverse" ruling amid what has been the "biggest ever revolt against Great Britain's Olympic and Paralympic medal-winning formula." All sports which lost money are able to "lodge a formal appeal with Sport Resolutions UK" but it is understood wheelchair rugby is "likely to end its battle amid fears prolonging the process will be futile and merely delay its own fundraising efforts" (TELEGRAPH, 2/20). The BBC reported table tennis was "another sport to be disappointed," despite Britain winning a bronze medal at the 2016 World Team Championships. Table Tennis England CEO Sara Sutcliffe said, "We overachieved on everything we were asked to do in the 2016 cycle, and did so without funding" (BBC, 2/20).
