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Seven sports fail in funding cut appeals

Badminton is among seven sports to fail in their appeal against funding cuts from UK Sport for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic cycle.

UK Sport has rejected appeals from seven sports that had their funding cut for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2020.

Badminton is the biggest loser in terms of cash, losing all of its £5.7m funding from the previous Olympic cycle despite hitting its medal target with a bronze in Rio.

Of the Olympic sports, archery, fencing, table tennis and weightlifting will also be without financial support from the lottery-backed funding agency, while Paralympic sports goalball and wheelchair rugby have been affected as well.

Powerlifting - the Paralympic equivalent of weightlifting - was the only sport to enjoy any success from the appeals as British Weightlifting persuaded the agency to let them be in charge of the £1.3m budget, rather than the English Institute of Sport.

"I'd like to thank all the sports for their professionalism and openness throughout this process. Our decision is in no way a reflection on them, their athletes or support personnel and everything that they have achieved to date," read a statement from Rod Carr, the chairman of UK Sport.

"I appreciate that for the majority of national governing bodies that attended the representation meetings today's outcome is extremely disappointing.

"We are operating in a tight financial envelope, and have responsibilities to both develop the system underpinning our best athletes as well as the sports and athletes themselves, and sadly our investment won't stretch to these sports for the Tokyo 2020 cycle."

UK Sport has distributed £345m to 31 Olympic and Paralympic sports for the build-up to Tokyo, which is £2m less than the record sum invested in the Rio cycle.

Great Britain finished second in the medal table in Rio de Janeiro, signalling the progress of sport in the country over the past 20 years having finished 36th at Atlanta 1996.

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People wave flags as the new Olympic emblems are unveiled during a ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Plaza on July 24, 2015
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